ITJCLS SAI.t'S ITATURALISTS . Friday, April 11, 1930. 



ANlJO^JIK^IS^gTT : Every two weeks at this time our Wilds Man tells us about 

 his visits with Uncle Saun's Naturalists. Tliis time it is about his vifeit 



with a Bird Man Ho, no, not em airplane pilot — but one of those 



fellows viho knows about our feathered friends that flit about the home 



place these days and fill the air with music; and themselves with bugs 



All right, Mr. Wildsman bring on your birds 



I never could go into raptures about the birds. I admire the 

 looks of some of them, I like to hear some of them sing. But when you 

 have had a flock of birds make a raid on your orchard and practically carry 

 off a tree full of fruit, you are apt to be skeptical about the value of 

 birds. 



I was until I talked to Mr. W. L. McAtee. Mr, McAtee adanitted that 

 sometimes flocks of robins, or starlings, or sparrows do considerable damage 

 to crops. But he says that most birds do m-jich more good than harm. Fact 

 is, he insists that it is worth while having them around. He holds th^t it 

 actually pays to provide homes for birds and make things attractive for then. 



You see, Mr. McAtee has inside information on this subject. He is 

 in cliarge of the Division of Food Habits Research of the United States 

 Biological Survey. In order to get a good idea of what our birds eat, his 

 division has examined the contents of the stomachs of thousands of birds 

 of all kinds. Mr. McAtee is an authority on bird bills-of-fare. 



He estimates that, at the lowest fig-ure, ovlt insect-catching birds, 

 such as the house wren, the blue bird, the purple martin, and others too 

 numerous to mention, keep down insects and insect damage by twenty-five per 

 cent. 7nat is, if it were not for our insoct-catching birds, dai^iage to 

 trees, and crops, afid pastures by insects would be at least one-fourth more 

 than it is now. When we think of the damage somo insects do, we can thank 

 our lucky stars we have the birds. 



For we do have the birds. Some folks seem to think that most of our 

 birds disappeared when our forests were felled. Some did. But Mr. McAtee 

 tells me that very many of oux small birds are now more numerous than they 

 ever were before. Comparatively few of our birds live in the depths of 

 the forest. They prefer the cleared edges and the mixed growth of the farm 

 woodlot. 



And out in the wide open places, armies of insects have literally 

 been svvallowed up by armies of birds. In one case, vrtien the grasshopper 

 had become a burden in the lajid, birds began coming to the famers' rescue. 

 "First a speck, emd then a shadow, until the air was dark with pinions" as the 

 poot would say. 



