SOME USEFUL BIRDS FOUND IN MINNESOTA* 
F. L. WASHBURN. 
With a total production of approximately $9,000,000,000' worth 
of agricultural and forestry products in the United States, which 
products suffer a loss of about $800,000,000 every year through 
the voraciousness of insect pests, it is not to be wondered at that 
anything which tends to decrease that loss by which our nation is 
robbed each year, is of special interest. It is the work of the eco- 
nomic entomologists to restore to the agricultural classes as much 
as possible of this loss, and, by their researches, to place citizens 
on their guard against insect enemies. They have been reasonably 
successful in their efforts, as shown by the large appropriations 
for this work made by federal and state governments. Massachu- 
setts, for example, has used, in the past, $150,000 annually to com- 
bat the gypsy moth, to which must be added approximately $100,- 
000 spent by private citizens in that state and $10,000 contributed 
by the United States government. New Jersey is on record as 
spending $350',000 a year in fighting mosquitoes alone. Losses 
from the San Jose scale, codling moth, Hessian fly, chinch bugs, 
and grasshoppers have been materially reduced through the work 
of our entomologists, who have also lessened by nearly or quite 
half, the $100,000,000 loss on stored products, such as mill stuffs, 
fruit, cotton, woolens, etc., suffered each year in the United States. 
In considering the work of entomologists, hovcever, we must 
not overlook the value of our birds- — many of them wrongly sus- 
pected of being without any redeeming quality, in keeping in check 
the hordes of insects and four-footed vermin that prey upon the 
crops of farmers, gardeners, and orchardists. 
Disregarding- any sentimental views upon birds caused by their 
song and beauty, and basing our opinions as to their usefulness or 
the contrary purely upon a study of their food-habits at different 
seasons, and in different years, it is believed that we may safely 
say that almost all of our common birds, including a goodly num- 
ber of hawks and owls, the so-called “birds of prey,” are useful to 
the agriculturist and fruit-raiser. Some are more so than others, a 
few are of doubtful utility, and a. still smaller number, representing 
a very small proportion of our bird fauna, we now regard, in the 
light of our present knowledge, as injurious. It is possible that ad- 
*Tlie demand for State Entomologist’s Circulars Nos. 32 and 35 has been 
so great that the issues are exhausted, and it has Imen deemed advisable to 
reprint them in consolidated form. This is intended for popular use in 
schools to familiarize students with the appearance and habits of some of 
our more common birds, and is in no way intended as a scientific treatise. — 
F. L. W. 
