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OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES. 
One Year 25 Cents 
ILLINOIS NUMBER 
Single Copy 3 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Appleton, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter, May 16, 1904, at Appleton, Wis., uuder the act of Congress of Mar, B. '79. 
VOL. X. 
OCTOBER, 1907. 
No. 4- 
Value of Birds. 
(Extracts from a leaflet by the Superintendent oi Jas¬ 
per County Schools). 
Newton, Ill., Jan. 1, 1907. 
To the People of Jasper County: 
It falls easily and naturally within the 
province of the teacher to discuss the 
economic value of birds to man. 
Under the old regime, the bird had no 
special or official friend to stand between 
him and the thoughtless boy and cruel 
sportsman whose object seemed to be 
only to kill for the mere joy of killing. 
As for the war of extermination waged 
against the birds it was assumed that 
they were, almost without exception, the 
worst enemies of the farmer. The 
grounds of this general denunciation 
were that some birds really did subsist 
on newly planted or sprouted seeds; and 
for this all were brought under the same 
sweeping condemnation. 
Scientific examination into the habits 
of birds, including the diet upon which 
they subsist, has already acquitted the 
great majority of these wicked charges. 
The farmer meanwhile has been con¬ 
fronted by a greater foe than the birds 
had been supposed to be. It was found 
out and demonstrated that in every j 7 ear 
one-tenth of all the products of agiiCUit- 
ure is destroyed by insects. 
Investigation shows that there are 
over a hundred thousand different species 
of insects in the United States alone, the 
majority of which are injurious. It is 
notnecessary to name these. The names 
alone would be the equivalent of a lecture 
twenty-four hours long. 
Against this mighty destroying army 
the farmer has but few and insufficient 
defenses. He fumigates, he sprays with 
liquid poisons, he sprinkles them with 
deadly dust, and but for the birds he 
would be utterly helpless. A vast army 
of these come to his defense and turn the 
tide of victorv in his favor. 
j 
Many of these birds have been them¬ 
selves under the sentence of death for 
plucking a few sprouts of wheat or ap¬ 
propriating a few berries; an examina¬ 
tion of the contents of their stomachs 
meanwhile showing them to be amongst 
the greatest of insect destroyers. 
The bird even when it lives largely 
upon seeds, must be credited also as the 
destroyer of the seeds of noxious as well 
as useful plants, and has also in its favor 
that it is an insect destroyer as well. 
There are statistics that show beyond 
peradventure of a doubt, that our best 
known birds are entirely free from the 
charges made against them. Many that 
do some little harm are found also to do a 
great amount of good. Even our old 
enemies, the crow, crow-black-bird and 
cedar-bird do more good than harm. 
Only three kinds of hawks are under 
bane. These are the goshawk, Cooper’s 
and the sharp-shinned hawk. 
It is time the war against birds should 
cease; the farmer and the householder 
