How can boys and girls bring back our song birds? I will not say much about why we want them, for in enlightened America we take it for granted. Some people still want to be convinced that birds are of practical value. I will say only that the damage to crops by insects in nineteen hundred and four, is estimated at nine hundred and seventy-five million dollars. Investigations by scientists in state and nation all go to prove that a vast percentage of this loss could have been saved by birds. I wish every child would be ambitious to increase the bird life on every farm, on every village block. Here are some facts that ought to be convincing. I take them at random from my notes:
Kingbirds kill bot-flies.
Brown thrashers feed mostly on insects, especially white grubs and curculios.
Cat-birds, cuckoos and orioles are very important enemies of gypsy moth.
The red-eyed vireos are "premium caterpillar hunters."
Bluebirds board themselves. Eat cut-worms, furry caterpillars, and grasshoppers.
Wrens' food is ninety-eight per cent. animal matter.
Warblers, titmice, creepers, and nut hatches eat lice.
A pair of robins fed their nestlings this menu in three hours, bringing food every three minutes: sixty-one earth-worms, sixteen yellow grubs, thirty-eight other insects. Also four grasshoppers, several dragon flies, and a few moths.
Robins rank first as enemies of white grub.