B Y THE WA YSIDE 
51 
number of birds by even one per cent, 
and this is easily possible. 
Pests such as insects, field mice and 
weeds increase wherever birds are de¬ 
pleted; the cost of raising grains, other 
food stuffs, and domestic animals in¬ 
creases in consequence and this causes 
an advance in the prices of the necessi¬ 
ties of life. Higher taxes are imposed to 
sustain state or municipal work for the 
control of insect pests, and the poor find 
it hard to exist. 
Always and everywhere the forces of 
animal and vegetable life spring into per¬ 
nicious activity and swarm with destruc¬ 
tive effect wherever their natural checks 
are removed. The ever-present danger 
of the increase of insects is shown by the 
investigations of W. L. McAtee of the 
United States Biological Survey. He 
made a careful, systematic, minute exam¬ 
ination of the surface of small areas of 
woodland and meadow soil. 
If the number of animal objects found 
on these areas will hold good on larger 
tracts, each acre of forest land contains 
1.216,880 small forms of animal life, 
mostly insects or their eggs, and each 
acre of meadow land contains 13.654,710 
such objects. Many of the insects eat 
others; but people who realize how fast 
insects increase when unchecked can 
readily imagine what would happen 
were such active, voracious insect eaters 
as the birds exterminated. 
Some birds will eat their own weight 
of insects each dav.and the dailv food of 
i • %/ 
a full-fledged young robin equals sixteen 
feet of caterpillars or earthworms. Nev¬ 
ertheless the destruction of birds by men 
continues. Many species of birds have 
been exterminated, and many others are 
nearing extermination. The foreign por¬ 
tion of our population rapidly increasing 
is a serious menace to bird life. 
“No doubt,” you will say, “we should 
protect the birds;” but what are you do¬ 
ing to conserve them? Are you making 
an effort or spending a cent? 
The National Association of Audubon 
Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds 
and Animals, organized and endowed by 
practical business men and women, di¬ 
rected bv altruistic, unpaid executive of¬ 
ficers, is engaged in securing bird pro¬ 
tective legislation and law enforcement. 
It is protecting the seabirds and wild¬ 
fowl on their breeding grounds on hun¬ 
dreds of islands along the coasts of the 
United States. 
It is educating children and the peo¬ 
ple generally regarding the value of birds. 
Everyone should consider it a duty to 
join this association or contribute in 
some way to its work, for it is the only 
national association in this country that 
is organized for the protection of all use¬ 
ful birds; and the urgent needs for its ac¬ 
tivities are far in excess of its resources. 
William Dutcher. the President, 141 
Broadway, New A r ork City, will always 
be grateful for an encouraging word from 
any svmpathizer in his work of self-sac- 
rificing endeavor on behalf of the birds 
and his fellowmen.— Edward Howe 
Forbush in Forest and Stream. 
Madison, Wis , January 7, 1909. 
Editor By the Wayside: 
I was very much surprised just now to 
see a robin, large, red and plump, in a 
tree just in front of our home. When I 
went outside I was greeted by his merry 
chirp time after time. He was quite 
alone but apparently as happy as if he 
were in the sunny south. Probably he 
was much happier than he would be in 
a nice bird pie on the table of some 
southern home. 
After the bitterlv cold weather we 
*/ 
have had for the past lew days I was 
Continued on page 56. 
