mend the economic activity in which they are urged to take part and thus keep 

 the wolf away from the door for all time to come. 



Protection from invasion by insect hordes is the rancher's only hope. The 

 natural enemy of all insect life is the bird life with which we were once so gen- 

 erously surrounded. \\'hen we consider that this country now exists upon about 

 10 per cent of the bird life that was here less than 450 years ago, it does not 

 seem as though it ought to be necessary to urge measures to build rather than to 

 tear down — does it? 



I wonder how many ever stopped to think that if the entire bird life of 

 the world were to be destroyed the vegetation upon which we depend wholly for 

 life would be eaten in about three years. So rapidly do insects multiply that one 

 is unable to grasp the enormity of the figures setting forth the truth. For 

 instance, let me take one instance in which Riley says that the hop aphis develops 

 thirteen generations in a year, and at the end of the twelfth generation there 

 will be ten sextillions of individuals. Our American naturalist, Forbush, says : "If 

 this brood were marshaled into line, ten to the inch, it would extend to a point 

 so sunk in the profundity of space that light from the head of the procession 

 traveling at the rate of 184.000 miles per second would require 2,?00 years in 

 svhich to reach the earth 1" 



Insects destroy more than SI, 000,000,000 worth of fruit and cereals every 

 year. Birds eat insects ! 



A bird in the bush sings sweeter than two birds on a woman's bonnet. 



Synonyms. — Hex Hawk; Chicken Hawk; Red-tail: Red-tailed; 

 Buzzard. 



Description. — Adult: Above dark brown, fuscous, and grayish brown, varied 

 by rusty or ochraceous edgings, and outcropping whitish, especially about head 

 and neck; primaries blackish-tipped, the first four deeply emarginate, the inner 

 ones indistinctly banded; tail deep rufous, crossed near end by a single narrow 

 bar of blackish ; lighter from below, — vinaceous or pearly pink ; under parts white 

 or bufify white, rufous — and brown-shaded on sides of neck and breast, nearly 

 meeting in center ; throat and upper breast with dusky, lanceolate streaks ; sides 

 with rhomboidal spots or transverse bars of rufous and dusky in various pat- 

 terns, nearly meeting across belly ; shanks faintly barred with rusty ; bill plum- 

 beous ; tarsus yellow, very stout: claws black. Immxiture: Similar to adult but 

 more uniform in coloration, — little buffy or ochraceous ; markings on sides of 

 breast and belly blackish, clear-cut ; tail entirely different, — grayish brown crossed 

 by nine or ten distinct narrow bands of blackish. Such are the typical plumages, 

 but the departures from them are wide and various. In winter resident birds 

 often assume a partial albino plumage, with strongly marked black and white, 

 and pure albinos are not rare. "Alelanism"' or blackening of plumage in various 

 proportions is not unknown. Adult male length 19.00-22.50. 



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