36 
NOTES ON THE FOOD OF BIRDS 
that birds do far more good than harm to Agriculture and 
Horticulture. We notice very readily such little destruction 
of our fruit or field crops as takes place, but we do not notice 
the everlasting destruction of injurious insects. We do not 
realize easily what would become of our crops if there were 
no birds; how many insects, but for this check, would in¬ 
crease so rapidly as to destroy every green thing in sight. 
But the purpose of this bulletin is not to pronounce a judicial 
opinion on the standing of all New Mexico birds, but simply 
to bring forward certain evidence which may be of interest 
and value. 
THE HARM DONE BY BIRDS 
Injurious Birds at flesilla Park 
Mr. Fabian Garcia has given me the following notes of 
his observations on the Experiment Station farm at Mesilla 
Park: 
“I have observed that in the spring the cherries, espec¬ 
ially the sweet varieties, are badly eaten up by the mocking 
bird and the sparrow. They eat and destroy about a third to 
half of the cherries on the trees. You understand, of course, 
that there are only a few trees; if there were large orchards, 
perhaps we could not notice the amount eaten by the birds. ’ 
‘•During summer and fall the blackbird and sparrow are 
extremely bad on kaffir corn and sorghum. They eat nearly 
all of the seed on the heads of both the kaffirs and sorghums. 
They are so bad that it is almost impossible for us here at 
the station to raise any kaffir corn seed. They begin to eat 
it as soon as it is formed. It may be that if large fields of 
these sorghums were planted all over the valley the damage 
done by these birds would not be noticeable. Doves are 
sometimes bothersome to early ripening wheat, but only to a 
limited extent and not every year.” 
The following important observations are by Mr. Birt- 
well of Albuquerque. 
Sandhill crane eating corn 
“This bird is a true pest in corn regions. It will travel 
