SEP 
DOES IT PAY THE FARMED TO PROTECT BIRDS? 
By H. W. IlENSHAW, 
Administrative Assistant, Biological Survey. 
As objects of human care and interest birds occupy a place filled 
by no other living things, and the various movements to protect and 
foster them would be fully justified were there no returns other than 
esthetic. Only the thoughtless and the ignorant still hold that the 
graceful forms and beautiful plumage of these masterpieces of nature 
serve their highest purpose when worn on a hat for a brief season, to 
be then cast aside and forgotten, the plumage dimmed and faded, the 
beautiful songs quenched forever. 
While by no means insensible to the higher value of birds, the far¬ 
mer who is asked to aid in measures for their protection is entitled to 
inquire as to the practical purpose they subserve and how far they 
may be expected to return his outlay of time, trouble, and expense. 
Since mod birds eat insects and since many eat practically nothing 
else, it is their insect-eating habits that chiefly invite inquiry, for 
so active and persistent are birds in the pursuit of insects that they 
constitute their most important enemies. 
When birds are permitted to labor undisturbed they thoroughly 
police both earth and air. The thrushes, sparrows, larks, and wrens 
search the surface of the earth for insects and their larvae or hunt 
among the leaves and peer under logs and refuse for them. The war¬ 
blers, vireos, creepers, and nuthatches with their microscopic eyes 
scan every part of the tree or shrub—trunk, branches, and leaves— 
and few hidden creatures escape them. The woodpeckers, not content 
with carefully scrutinizing the bark and limbs of trees, dig into de¬ 
cayed and worm-eaten wood and drag forth the burrowing larvae, 
which in their hidden retreats are safe from other enemies. The 
flycatchers, aided by the warblers, are ever on the alert to snap up 
insects when flying among trees and branches; while the swallows 
and nighthawks skim over the pastures and patrol the air high above 
the tree tops for such of the enemy as have escaped pursuit below. 
Thus each family plays its part in the never-ending warfare, and the 
number of insects annually consumed by the combined hosts is simply 
incalculable. It is well that this is so, for so vast is the number of 
insects and so great is the quantity of vegetation required for 
their subsistence that the existence of every green thing would be 
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