FOREST AND STREAM 
165 
monly recognized by the whitish eye, is often 
seen during the latter part of the summer feed¬ 
ing upon grasshoppers. After the nesting sea¬ 
son, these birds gather in flocks and skirmish 
about wherever grasshoppers seem most abund¬ 
ant. Sparrow-hawks, pheasants, quail, meadow¬ 
larks and many other birds live largely upon 
grasshoppers and other insects when they are 
abundant and thus assist man in the protection 
of his crops. 
The Chinese or Denny pheasant is the most 
abundant game bird in Oregon. We sometimes 
hear the complaint from gardener or farmer 
that this bird is damaging crops. It is very 
true that the pheasant eats corn, peas, potatoes 
and grain, but at the same time, he devours many 
injurious insects. A male pheasant killed Octo¬ 
ber 15, 1913, had its crop and gizzard filled with 
grasshoppers, weevils, soldier bugs and cut¬ 
worms. The crop of another pheasant contained 
thirty-four grasshoppers, three crickets and 
eleven beetles. 
In the vegetable and animal world, all living 
things are bound together in many ways. In 
the struggle for existence, every species is re¬ 
lated closely to many other species, each acting 
as a force in itself to hold the equilibrium which 
is called the balance of nature. This natural 
law of our world may well be compared with 
that which keeps. our solar system in operation. 
Each species is a powerful force within itself to 
live and multiply and in turn 'is held within 
bounds by the forces and actions of every other 
species. There is an intense natural competition 
to keep this balance even. 
The natural checks upon insect life are the 
wild birds that live in our fields and forests. If 
we were to kill off the birds of a certain local¬ 
ity, we should immediately overthrow the bal¬ 
ance of nature and there would be a correspond¬ 
ing increase of insects. 
Without the wild birds, our forests would be 
swept as by a blast of fire. Our trees would 
look like an army of telegraph posts. The im¬ 
portance of bird life in conserving our forests 
is well known. Four hundred different species 
of insects are continually working on the oak 
tree alone. The birds of the forests are con¬ 
stantly catching and consuming these insects- On 
the willow trees, one hundred and eighty-six 
different kinds of insects are constantly at work; 
on the pine, one hundred and sixty-five species; 
on the hickory, one hundred and seventy; on the 
birch, one hundred and five; and on the elm, 
eighty. Careful analysis of the stomachs of 
thousands of woodpeckers, titmice, creepers, 
kinglets, wood warblers, wrens, flycatchers, swal¬ 
lows, nuthatches and other birds show that they 
do nothing else but eat these devastating insects. 
This is their life work. Destroy our wild birds 
and you destroy our forests. 
Birds work more in conjunction with man than 
any other form of outdoor life. Nature has 
given them the special task of holding insect life 
in check in order to protect plant life. Do not 
let any fruit grower think, however, that birds 
alone will keep his orchard free from insect 
pests; birds will only help in the fight in or¬ 
chards, gardens and forests. 
In a day’s time, the bush-tit and chickadee 
have been known to eat hundreds of insect eggs 
and worms that are harmful to our trees and 
vegetables. A brood of three young chipping 
sparrows were watched during one day and they 
were fed a hundred and eighty-seven times by 
the parents. A family of four song sparrows, 
seven days old, were fed seventeen grasshoppers 
and two spiders in sixty-seven minutes. The fly¬ 
catchers and swallows destroy vast numbers of 
flies and gnats that annoy horses and cattle. The 
food of the flicker or woodpecker consists large¬ 
ly of ants which protect the aphides or plant lice 
which are so destructive to gardens and or¬ 
chards. Three thousand of these ants have been 
taken from the crop of a single bird. The food 
of the meadowlark consists of seventy-five per 
cent, of injurious insects and twelve per cent, 
of weedseed, which shows it is a bird of great 
economic value. A single robin has been 
known to eat a hundred and seventy-five cater¬ 
pillars. One bob-white that was killed had over 
a hundred pota‘o bugs in its craw. Another 
had eaten two spoonfuls of chinch bugs. After 
the day-flving birds have ceased their work and 
gone to sleep, the nighthawk is busy catching 
untold numbers of mosquitoes, moths and other 
insects. W. L. FINLEY. 
A Wild Weasel Sits for His Photo. 
This view of a wild weasel caught with a set camera 
is most unusual, as the animal is seldom abroad in 
daylight. Photo by Howard Taylor Middleton, Haines- 
port, New Jersey. 
LOUISIANA’S SPLENDID GAME RESOURCES 
AT FAIR. 
To show what a sportsman's paradise Louisi¬ 
ana is and how conservation measures are pre¬ 
serving the great variety of wild game found in 
that southern State for the years to come, the 
Conservation Commission o'f that State is plan¬ 
ning a most unique display that will be housed 
in the space Louisiana will occupy at the Pan¬ 
ama-Pacific International Exposition in San 
Francisco. 
While all of the natural resources of that State 
will be shown in the space alloted, the Conserva¬ 
tion Comission, President M. L. Alexander, of 
that body, has decided to make a special appeal 
to the sportsman so that he may learn what 
game is to be found in the Pelican State and at 
the same time see how the modern conservation 
measures, now most rigidly enforced, are caus¬ 
ing almost unbelievable increase in the migratory 
and resident game. 
To this end a number of panoramic groups 
are in course of preparation in which the actual 
specimens of wild life will be on view in the 
environment of the South. The one given over 
to the wild duck and geese will depict a scene 
on the immense State Game Preserve showing 
every species of duck and goose that find a 
haven there ’from the market hunters’ guns dur¬ 
ing the winter months. An expedition, headed 
by Stanley Clisby Arthur, the commission’s orni¬ 
thologist, and E. A. Tulian, superintendent of 
the fisheries department, left New Orleans dur¬ 
ing the middle of January for the wild game 
havens which include the State Game Preserve, 
60,000 acres; Mrs. Russell Sage’s Marsh Island, 
78,000 acres; the Ward-Mcllhenny tract of 50,000; 
the Rockefeller Foundation preserve, 85,000, and 
the smaller ones along the Gulf of Mexico-total 
in all over 300,000 acres, to collect specimens, 
study and survey the birds seeking refuge there. 
These game conditions will be photographed by 
“still” and motion pictures so that visitors at 
San Francisco will gain an idea of conditions 
in the middle Oif winter when the open season is 
on in full in other parts of the State and many 
of Mr. Arthur’s pictures will be used ’for back¬ 
grounds of the scenes to be replicated at the ex¬ 
position. The taxidermist of the Louisiana 
State Museum accompanied the party and only 
the actual birds found on the preserves will go 
into the groups. Another display will be that 
devoted' to showing the Upland game birds and 
the conditions under which they are found willl 
be faithfully duplicated at San Francisco. 
The recently acquired game “farm” on Avery’s 
Island will also be given a prominent position 
in the exhibit of the Conservation Commission 
and the methods O'f breeding will be given a 
thorough exposition. The protection given the 
egrets that are now nesting by the thousands 
there every summer, and the other birds that 
neared total extinction a short year or two ago, 
will be explained to all who visit the exhibit. 
Photography will be largely used by Conser¬ 
vation Commissioners Alexander, Dayries and 
Leche in showing what inducements the State 
offers the sportsman who longs for days in the 
open under matchless Southern skies, and abund¬ 
ance of game, but who must observe the bag 
limit and the other protective measures the com¬ 
mission has fixed on. Stanley Clisby Arthur, 
who has spent weeks at a time catching the 
wild life of Louisiana on the plates of his 
camera and the film of the motion picture, is 
well known as a photographer of wild life and 
some o'f the pictures he has secured in the Loui¬ 
siana lowlands are as unique as they are beauti¬ 
ful and enlargements from many of his negatives 
will adorn the walls of the Louisiana booth. 
BUTCHER PERILS BUFFALOES. 
Learning that two buffaloes from the Scotty 
Phillips herd in Pittsburg, S. D., had been sold 
to butchers in St. Paul for meat and that the 
entire herd is for sale for any purpose, the pur¬ 
chasers may desire. Carlos Avery, executive 
agent of the Minnesota game and fish commis¬ 
sion has asked the. state to buy some 
of the animals and would recommend that park 
boards and estate owners do the same to pre¬ 
vent the extinction of the herd. After the death 
of Phillips, the heirs, many of them half-breeds, 
demanded that the estate be turned into cash. 
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