104 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[AUG. 8, 1896. 
guilty of the charges made against them — the goshawk, 
Cooper's and the sharp-shinned — while the rest are num- 
bered among the beat friends of the fruit grower and 
farmer. Of the woodpeckers, the sapsucker and redhead 
may be beneficial or injurious, according to circum- 
stancea, but the rest of the family are highly beneficial. 
To most of the remaining birda tried the evidence is de- 
cidedly creditable. The crow, crow blackbird and cedar 
bird are acquitted as doing more good than barm; and it 
is proved that agriculturists owe especial protection and 
friendship to the phoebe, kingbird, catbird, swallow, 
brown thrasher, rose-breaated grosbeak, house wren, 
vireos, cuckoo, oriole, shore lark, loggerhead shrike and 
meadowlark. 
Catbird. 
The catbird is persecuted because it eais fruit; but, 
although stomach examinations show that it does eat 
considerable in some parts of the country, one-third of its 
food consists of insects which annually destroy a large 
part of the farmer's profits. As Mr. Judd, in speaking of 
the catbird, says: "By killing the birds their services as 
insect destroyers would be lost, so the problem is to keep 
both the birds and the fruit." The study of this matter 
has led to one of the most important discoveries made in 
the investigations of the Division of Ornithology. It has 
been demonstrated that some birds — the catbird among 
the number — actually prefer wild fruits to the cultivated, 
and that most of t*^*^ '^nn^ploints of depredations come 
from parts of the country where there is little wild fruit, 
80 that by planting berry-bearing bushes and trees it may 
be possible to prevent losses to cultivated fruits and at the 
same time to attract the birds and so secure their much- 
needed help in destroying insect pests. 
The catbird is an excellent example of this. Experi- 
ments show that he prefers the red mulberry to cherries 
and strawberriers, and stomach examinations show that 
he eats twice as much wild fruit as cultivated, while 
one-third of bis food is made up of insects. A slight idea 
of the good he does in destroying pests may be had from 
the fact that thirty grasshoppers were found in each of 
five stomachs. Eeports show that he does much more 
harm in the central United States, where wild fruits are 
scarce, than near the coast, where they are abundant. 
Mr. Judd suggests that the crops of cherries and straw- 
berries can be protected by planting the "prolific Russian 
mulberry, which, if planted in hen yards and pig runs, 
will afford excellent food for the hens and pigs besides 
attracting the birds away from more valuable fruit." 
The verdict in the case of the catbird is, that he is 
already one of the farmer's best assistants, and that by a 
little effort the small amount of harm he does might be 
counteracted so that he wovdd do unalloyed good in the 
farm and garden. 
Kingbird. 
The kingbird has been so long accused of destroying 
honey bees that careful examinations have been made of 
218 stomachs. Insects formed about 90 per cent, of the 
whole food, but only fourteen of the 2i8 stomachs con- 
tained any trace of honey bees. Furthermore, nearly all 
the bees found were drones. On the other hand, the 
kingbird had destroyed a num- 
bfr of the worker bees' worst 
enemy, the robber fly, which 
has been known to kill 140 
honey bees in a day; so this 
bird's reputation stands well 
cleared. More than this, t he good 
done by this industrious flycatch- 
er does not end with the death of 
the robber fly. Nearly 60 per 
cent, of his food consists of insects 
well known to be injuriouf. 
Among them are the gadfly, £0 
terrifying to horses and cattle; the 
destructive rosechafer, ants and 
BoBBBR FliT. 
the 
cloverleaf weevil, 
gra'^shoppers. 
Of the little fruit the kingbird eats only three or four 
kinds are cultivated, and if he were to harm one kind of 
fruit it would be easy to plant something that he would 
eat instead, as he feeds on wild red and black cherries, 
choke cherries, elderberries, mulberries, wild grapes, 
spice bush, sassafras, cornel, red and ground cedar, buck- 
thorn, magnolia and pokeberry. 
The conclusion reached from the examination of the 
218 stomachs is that the kingbird is one of the best helps 
the farmer has in the destruction of harmful insects. One 
correspondent exclaims fervently, "I honor and esteem 
this bird for the millions of ruinous vermin he rids us of I" 
Swallows. 
The swallows are probably the greatest flycatchers in 
the eastern United States, but in addition to this they 
destroy great numbers of flying ants, aquatic leaf -eating 
beetles and weevils. 
Barn Swallow. 
Mr. Judd says, "The barn swallow is the most noted 
destroyer of flies, especially those kinds which torment 
tock." 
Eave Swallow. 
This useful bird builds under the eagres of puj: bsrtis 
and eats enormous quantities of winged ants and also 
mosquitoes, injurious wheat midges, spotted squash 
beetles, and beetles that work under the bark of trees. 
Chickadee. 
In an article on "Birds as Protectors of Orchards," Mr. 
E. H. Forbush, of the Massachusetts Board of Agricul- 
ture, says of the chickadee: "There is no bird that can 
compare with it in destroying the female cankerworm 
moths and their eggs," He calculated that one chickadee 
in one day would destroy 5,550 eggs, and in the twenty- 
five days in which the cankerworm moths run or crawl 
up the trees 138,750 eggs. Mr. Forbush attracted chick- 
adees to one orchard by feeding them in winter, and he 
says that in the following summer "it was noticed that 
while trees in neighboring orchards were spriously in- 
fested with cankerworms and to a less degree with tent 
caterpillars, those in the orchard which had been fre- 
quented by the chickadees during the winter and spring 
were not seriously infested, and that comparatively few 
of the worms and caterpillars were to be found there." 
His conclusion is that birds that eat eggs of inseats are of 
the greatest value to the farmer, as they feed almost 
entirely on injurious insects and their eggs, and are 
present all winter, when other birds are absent. 
Cedar Bird. 
The cedar bird is also known as the cherry bird, but 
cultivated cherries have been found in only nine out of 
152 stomachs examined, which, as Prof. Beal says, 
"hardly justifies the reputation which the bird has gainsd 
as a destroyer of cherries." He adds that this supposed 
cherry habit "to the careless and unobservant would con- 
demn the bird to destruction, but the closer observer looks 
further." Investigation shows that more than half of the 
whole food of the cedar bird consists of wild fruit which 
has no value, and that one-eighth of its food consists of in- 
sects, among which are some of the worst pests of the 
country. Furthermore, since the nestlings are fed largely 
on insects, the greatest number of insects are eaten when 
fruit is most abundant. The cedar bird eats caterpillars, 
spiders and grasshoppers, but does most marked good in 
destroying the elm leaf beetle that strips our village and 
city trees of leaves. Mrs. Mary Treat writes of one town 
in which the elms had been ruined for several years before 
the cedar birds came, and which were afterward compar- 
atively free from beetles. From one calculation it is 
shown that thirty cedar birds would destroy 9,000 worms 
during the month when the cut- worm caterpillar is ex- 
posed. 
To prevent the cedar bird from eating cultivated fruit 
it would be well to plant some of the common bushes upon 
whose berries it feeds, such as blackberry, wild cherry, 
choke cherry, sour gum, flowering dogwood, rough-leaved 
dogwood, chokeberry, red cedar, June berry, hackberry, 
black haw, black elder, huckleberry, frost grape, bar- 
berry, mistletoe, or pokeberry. 
Crow. 
The charges against the crow are (1) that it pulls sprout- 
ing com; (2) that it injures corn in the milk; (3) that it 
destroys cultivated fruit, and (4) that it feeds on the eggs 
and young of poultry and wild birds. 
Nine hundred stomachs have been examined, but while 
it has been found that the crow does eat the forbidden 
food, it has also been seen that the quantity he eats is so 
small that it is more than counterbalanced by the good he 
does in destroying injurious insects and harmful animals. 
Only 3 per cent, of the total food of the crow is sprouting 
corn and corn in the milk; the rest that he is credited with 
is mostly waste grain picked up here and there mainly in 
winter, and so of no economic value. The injury the 
crow does to cultivated fruits is trivial. Moreover, the 
eggs and young of poultry and wild birds which he eats 
constitute only 1 per cent, of his food for the yt ar, The 
Erejudice against him is based on an exaggeration of the 
arm he does, for in each instance it is proved to be insig- 
niflcant. 
Some intelligent farmers who realize the money value 
of the services of the crows either feed them old corn 
during the time when the growing corn is in the milk or 
else tar the corn before planting, in both cases protecting 
themselves from the injury the bird may do, and at the 
same time insuring his help in destroying the pests that 
will surely menace the maturing crop. Tarring must be 
done carefully to be successful, The best methods are 
given in the Crow Bulletin (No. 6), pp. 89-91. 
But while protecting ourselves from the possible sins 
of the crow we must credit him with the good he does; 
26 per cent, of his entire food consists of insects, the 
majority of which are grasshoppers, May beetles, cut 
worms and other injurious kinds. Another of the most 
important items of the crow's food is mice, and when 
rabbits and other harmful rodents are added to the list it 
becomes obvious that the good the bird does exceeds the 
bad, and that he is deserving the patient encouragement 
of the farmer. When we consider the work he does 
as a scavenger, our debt to him becomes still more ap- 
parent. 
It has been well said that W9 4o mt ihooti ow cows and 
horses, although they eat our grain throughout the year; 
and it seems strange indeed that we should be unwilling 
to feed the birds during a few weeks when they spend 
the rest of the summer as unpaid day laborers in our 
farms and gardens, freeing us from pests which threaten 
to destroy all our profits. 
Blue jay. 
Like the crow, the bluejay is accused of pulling com 
and eating young birds and eggs; 2b0 stomachs have been 
examined. In these remains of birds' eggs were found 
in only three, and of birds in two; 17 per cent, of the food 
of the year was found to be corn, but on the other hand 
23 per cent, was made up of insects, such as grasshoppers 
and caterpillars, which shows that the jay does more good 
than harm. 
In the matter of grain, the jay seems to take corn when 
nothing better offers, but evidently prefers mast, the 
large seeds of trees and shrubs, such as acorns, chestnuts, 
beechnuts and hazelnuts. T^is preference is shown by 
the fact that in the two months when the most corn is to 
be had— October and November — the bluejay stomachs 
show only 1 per cent, of corn against 64 per cent, of mast. 
Moreover, when corn is actually thrown out to the jay, 
as it often is on beds of chaff by New England farmers in 
winter, the moment the bare spots appear so that he can 
pick up his favorite food from the ground he deserts the 
com. 
The conclusion is that the bluejay has been unduly 
censured in the matter of eating young birds and eggs, 
and that, as he dops not eat corn when he can obtain mast, 
BALTIMOBB ORIOLE. 
he does less harm in eating corn than good in destroying 
insects. 
House Wren. 
The house wren is exclusively insectivorous and there- 
fore highly beneficial. Half of its food is grasshoppers 
and beetles; it also destroys ants, caterpillars, crickets and 
spiders. 
Cuckoo. 
The cuckoo eats so many caterpillars that the walls of 
ite stomach are filled with hairs, making theaa look like 
pieces of a felt hat. One cuckoo was found with forty- 
three caterpillars in its stomach. 
Black-Billed Cuckoo. 
Insixteen stomachs examined therewere 338 caterpillars, 
fifteen grasshoppers, spiders, etc. The caterpillars were 
most of them hairy ones, many of them of a kind that 
lives in colonies and feeds on the leaves of apple and other 
trees. 
Yellow-Billed Cuckoo. 
In twenty-one stomachs there were 355 cater jillar^, 
'twenty-three grasshoppers, saw flies, potato bugs, locusts, 
etc. One stomach contained twelve tent caterpillars, and 
another had 317 f aU web worms. 
Oriole. 
Green corn has been found in one of 113 stomachs and 
peas in two; but one man who reports that the bird eats 
grapes adds that it is worth its weight in gold as sn in- 
sect deetroyert .Mr. Lawtenoe Brunetj in his "Note« ©n 
Nebraska Birds,'* •Well Sa;^S: ''If we take baihS to ^atef 
our birds during the dry season, they will be much less 
apt to seek this supply from the juices of fruits that are 
so temptingly near at hand. Place little pans of water in 
the orchard and vineyard where the birds can visit them 
without fear of being seized by the house cat or knocked 
over by S, ttissile hota the alert 'stnall boy,* and 1 am sure 
that the injury to fruit to a great extent at least will 
cease." Speaking of the Baltimore oriole he adds: "As 
inseot destroyers, both this bird and the orchard oriole 
^ have had an Undisputed reputation for many j ears; and 
the kind of insects destroyed by both are of such a class 
as count in their favor." 
Prof. Beal says: "The oriole is a most potent factor in 
the destruction of caterpillars, eating so many that if no 
other insects were taken it would still be classed as a use- 
ful bird. It does not, however, restrict its diet to cater- 
pillars, but eats great numbers of injurious beetles and 
also many bugs and grasshoppers, including beetles that 
feed on locust and apple trees, and the wire worm, one of 
the most destructive insects with which the farmer has to 
contend. In fact the oriole is one of the most useful birds 
that we have." 
Horned Lark; Shore Lark. 
It has been complained that the lark eats newly planted 
wheat and oats, but the examination of fifty-nine stom- 
achs shows that it does not do any appreciable damage 
to grain crops, and on the other hand it does great good 
by eating weed seed. As Professor Beal says, "Any bird 
which eats freely the seeds of such pests as pigweed, bit- 
terweed, amaranth and sorrel should be given the most 
perfect protection unless it is clearly shown to have bad 
habits which offset the benefit thus conferred." 
Butcherbird. 
The butcherbird comes South into the United States in 
winter, and does good by destroying grasshoppers, miC6 
ftn4 English sparrows. 
fTO BE OONTINUBD.] 
