552 
A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
VII 
THE USES OF BTRDS 
WHAT THE BIRDS DO FOR US 
Perhaps you have never thought very much about the biids. 
You are so accustomed to seeing them fly about and to hearing 
them sing that you do not realize what a strange, unnatural, 
silent thing springtime would be if the birds should all sud- 
denly disappear. 
Yes, indeed, the world would be sad and lonely without 
these beautiful winged voices. But something even more 
dreadful would happen should they leave us : the people of the 
world would be in danger of starving, because the birds would 
not be here to feed on the myriad worms and insects that eat 
the wheat and corn and fruits upon which we together with 
other animals depend for food. 
The insects gnawing at the roots of the pasture grasses 
would destroy both the summer grazing for the cattle and the 
hay for winter fodder; if worms destroyed the forests there 
would be no trees for firewood, and also the lack of shade 
would make the sources of our rivers dry up and we should 
soon suffer for water. 
Girls and boys might never think of this, but the Wise 
Men who live at Washington, and form the association known 
as the Biological Survey, as well as those of the Departments of 
Agriculture in each state, thought of this long ago. 
They have worked hard and proved the truth of this whole 
matter, and now know exactly upon what each kind of bird 
feeds ; and laws are everywhere being made to protect the use- 
ful birds from those who are either so stupid or so vicious that 
they think a bird is something to be shot or stoned, and that 
the robbing of nests of eggs is a clever thing to do. 
Any child who stops to think must realize one thing: As 
almost all birds live on animal food during the nesting season, 
and feed their young with it, and many kinds eat it all the 
year, it follows that the more birds we have the fewer bugs 
there will be. 
Also those birds who feed on seeds and wild fruits destroy 
quantities of weed seeds that would spring up and choke the 
