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Show Birds Are Amon the Great-1 est Friends of Mankind It Is Estimated That With-out With-out Their Help All Plant! Life Would Disappear In ! a Few Years. Copyrlsbt, 1010. Tbe International Sy u.JIcMe DO you know that the birds stand between you and starvation'' This la a scientific fact, for It Is asserted that tho earth in a few toMi years would be eaten bare of fool rops, gra-i3 and other vegetation by destructive Insects it It were not for our friends abd protectors, the "birds, 'i which devour these bugs and beetles H by the billions and thus hold them in 1 ' check. Birds are the first lieutenants In every clean-up campaign Some of j I, ihem even eat mosquitoes, and any- ', th'ng which helps to get rid of these suckers deserves a vote of thanks from Irllli humanity. Birds protect the farmers' crops upon which we depend for our lj.j main supply of foodstuffs, they eat borer worms, larva and other Injurious enemies of the trees: and they attack the moths, caterpillars and various bugs that Invade the fruit orchard. Take' the caso of the lato Frederick 1ho Great. It Is reported that one day-he day-he saw a fiock of sparrows pecking at some of the cherries among his trees. Jn an outburst of passion he thundered out a command that every small bird in the neighborhood be searched out and killed He would have no more of such dcstructivencss among his cherry trees. WltMn two years the trees were bare of cherries but they were producing a fine crop of caterpillars. cater-pillars. Some efficiency! Kat Own Weight In Bugs A Day Birds H3 a rulo are omnivorous caters; cat-ers; and sometimes In a single day a bird will eat more than Its own weight of bugs. Stomachs of birdfi have been found to contain more than fifty varieties varie-ties of Insects, while the number of Individual Insects In a stomach has run into tho thousands From 3.000 to 5.000 ants havo been found In a , bird's stomach. Also they will often consume thousands of weed seeds In a day. The American Forestry Asso-tlon Asso-tlon of Washington, therefore, through a national bird house building contest has been recommending that means bo taken to protect, and encour. i age birds in every community because Of tho great economic service they render. Birds will cease coming to a neighborhood where they cannot find proper protection and good ncstlrg places. Birds are a great asset to any community. com-munity. They help the farmer by devouring great quantities of the Insects In-sects which prey upon his crops, and they also eat the seeds of many weeds. They get after the bugs In the garden. In the orchard they consume caterpillars cater-pillars and other pests destructive to tree life. Frank If. Chapman, eminent, ornithologist, is authority for the statement that "If we should lose our birds we should also lose our forests."' These little friends of the forest cat the borers which live on the bark of trees and the various moths and other parasites that prey upon the trees, Toll Amounts To One-tenth It has been estimated that insects take a toll every year which amounts to one-tenth of all tho cereals, hay. cotton, tobacco, forests and general farm products that are raised In the United States. It if said, for Instance, that they destroy as much as J53.000 - 000 worth of hay Hessian files appeared ap-peared in Ohio and Indiana la the year 1900 and before they had completed com-pleted their ravages they had devoured L', 500, 000 acres of wheat, a tremendous loss not only to that section of the country, but to the nation as a whole. Theso facts give a glimpse as to the reasons why birds should be protected land encouraged. They arc worth many millions of dollars annually to tho country. If It were not for them some of the insect plagues might gain such headway that there would be no possible way of checking them. Numerous observations have been made to discover how many Insects 1 birds eat. It has been found In some j cases that they will eat thousands of ! bugs and Insects In one day Grass- hoppers, potato and cucumber beetles. : plant lice, cankerwork moths, codling I worms, ants these and many other I ' . - kinds of Insects furnish food for the birds. The more the birds arc encouraged en-couraged to visit a neighborhood, therefore, the greater will be the protection pro-tection to the crops and trees In that neighborhood. The house wren Is a valuable bird in this particular for It fccd3 entirely on Insects. This littlo bird Is one of the most sociable and confiding of birds and will build Its nest right close to a human habitation. The wron will gladly accept a little house prepared for Its reception, and if It has to build Its nest elsew here constructs It of grass or weeds stuffed Into any crevice that takes its fancy A French scientist has asserted that without birds to check the ravages of insects, human life would vanish from the earth In the short space of nine years. He Insists that Insects would I firstt destroy the growing cereals, then i would fall upon the grass and the j foliage which would leave nothing for '.he cattle and stock to feed upon. It j Is certain that birds destroy every ! year thousands of tonj of noxious weed seeds and billions of harmful Insects. jAmong other pets which birds at-Itack at-Itack Is the cotton boll weevil which i has done so much harrn in the South The annual loss of agricultural prod' , ucts from insects in the United States has been estimated as high as $500.- ! 000,0 0 n Swallows feed almost entirely upon obnoxious Insects and thoy will do i much toward protecting orchards and other trees. Of the blue swallows the purple martin is the largest, the male ' being entirely blue above and below. While the female Is blue above with a I gray breast. Swallows arc highly migrators', most of them spending the winter in South America. A cliff swal- low will eat at least a thousand flics, Mosquitoes, v- heat midgets and beetles In a day. This bird Is known also as the cave swallow because it plasters its nest on the outside of a barn or other building up under the eaves. Colonics of several thousand will build their nests together on the side of a cliff. These nests shaped llko a fla toned gourd or water bottle, are made of bits of clay rolled into pellets and lined with straw or feathers. Flit spring Visitor The bluebird which is one of the first, often tho first to arrive in spring from tho southland, builds its Dwt In : bird boxes or In crannies about bulld-i bulld-i Ings or in holes in trees. It lines the j bottom of the nest with grasses for 'the four or flvo blue-white egg3 which It lays. Sometimes more hardy members mem-bers of the bluebird tribe will winter ri far 'North as Southern New Bns I land. Oue of the champ;on fly-catchers of the United States is the Wilson warbler which darts out from the limb of a 'tree and snatches passing insects on the wing. Thc also catch insects which are flitting about or sitting on he foliage or blossoms of the trees. The olive green and yellow plumage of this bird harmonizes with the green leae.s of the trees. This bird winters in Central America. , Different Ways Of Catching Insects Birds aro provided by nature with different kinds of implements bills, tongues and so forth depending on v. here and how they hunt out then-Insect then-Insect and other food. Some people used to have the mistaken Idea thai woodpeckers Injured trees by pecking holes in them. But tho woodpecker was only digging away to find the larva or bugs hidden under the bark; or if he was doing anything else It was merely to make a nest for his little family in the decayed hollow of some I limb. I "The group of In ecUeatlUg birds Is large and varied, for there are many-kind many-kind of Insects and many ways of securing them," according to Dr. A. A. Allen, assistant professor of ornithology ornithol-ogy in Cornell University. "Some Insects In-sects live in the soft mud about shores and marshes and for these the birds must probe: somo live among tho leaves and harder soil of the forest floor, and for theso tho birds must scratch Others live In the trunks and branches of trees and in order to secure se-cure them the birds must be proficent carpenters and supplied with chisels for gouging. Still other Insects spend tmost of the:r lives darting hither ani I thither and these must be caught on J the wdng. Lastly, there arc thoie insects in-sects which hide In the grass or among the leaves of shrubs and tree?, and these must be searched out wiin keen eyes. "And so. among birds." adds Dr. j Allen, "we have probers In the snipe, tscratchcrs In the grouse and oim' J j borers in the woodpeckers, flycatchers In the swallows and nighthawki. un gleaners In tlux blackbirds, thrustie. rireos and waWlers. In each groui we find those modifications of ouu feet. wing.-, tall, tongue and eyes wMcn best fit the birds for securing the n j sects in its particular way." , Without proper protection to Dirs life both farm and garden crops ano tree would soon he so ravaged ti the results would be disastrous, fo this reason the American Forestry . SOClatlon Is urging the arousing o i ither Interest In every communis j birds: and P. S. Rldsdalc. secretary -pi the organization, calls attention to in (fact that the economic benefit to I derived therefrom will apply not. on to the Individual city or town bu. I the entire na'ion |