9 
USKFIM. I5IRDS 
(litional investii^ation may cause us to eiitertaiu a differeut opiu- 
iou of the latter. A farmer, or orchardist, or l)erry-raiser, or truck 
gardener, has a perfect right to protect his crops from excessive 
l)ird injury and we have seen occasions where possil)ly resort to a 
shotgun was jnstihal)le, but, in such cases, one should be absolutely 
sure that the bird he seeks to ilestroy is really guilty, that the in- 
jury caused is serious, and, iparticularly, that the benefits accruing 
from the destruction of a large number of insects on the part of the 
l)ird in question, during the nesting season, do not more than com- 
])ensate for the few berries or small amount of other fruit or of 
garden or farm crop destroyed. I'or this information, the agri- 
culturist has to rely mainly u})on the results of the studies of ex- 
})erts in this line, since it requires long and careful observations 
and the examination of a large series ot l)irds' stomachs to place this 
matter upon even an ap])roximately accurate basis. 
In this connection, we should note that the parent birds secure 
the enormous number of insects, which form the main part of 
the food of the nestlings, as near the nest as possible ; the nearer, the 
more tri])s each day and consecpiently the more insects consumed. A 
l)ird nesting a mile away from a i)erry patch is not going to cover 
that distance seeking for insects if it can get them near at hand, 
d'herefore, it Iwhooves the agriculturist to encourage nesting of 
birds upon his own ])lace. 
As evidence of the \'oracity with which birds attack insects, 
tb.e writer might cite his ol)servations at Lake Minnetonka in Se])- 
tember, 1914, at a time when enormous numbers of “gnats” (Chi- 
ronomids) filled the air, producing, at sunset and after, a humming 
noise audil)le for a long distance. Idiese fiies are of no special im- 
I)ortance to the agriculturist, but 1)}' their immense numbers are 
sometimes disagreeable accompaniments of a sojourn near bodies of 
water, their lanud life being acjuatic. In this particular instance, 
these huge swarms attracted hordes of Tree Swallows massing for 
their southward migration. These beautiful birds, thousands of 
them, remained in the vicinity of the lake for several days, and must 
have made a decided impression u})on the numbers of the fiies. They 
not only caught these gnats in the air, but clustered upon trees and 
even lit upon lawns, seeking the fiies in places where the latter had 
sought shelter from the wind. In an efifort to determine how great 
had been the destruction of gnats by the swallows, the writer 
secured three of the birds and examined their stomachs. These 
were found distended with immense (]uantities of fiies, but in such 
