birds in general there remains no doubt, in the minds of thinking
people at least, as to the value of these creatures. It is only the
vicious, biased, and thoughtless persons who continue ruthlessly to
destroy birds indiscriminately without first pausing to consider
whether or not it is a proper thing to do, whether it is right or
wrong.
_Food habits._--So varied is this task of evening up in nature that if
attended to properly the workers must be numerous in individuals and
possess widely different habits. That such is the case can readily be
seen by the following brief account of the various groups of our
Nebraska birds, along with brief statements of their food habits.
The Grebes and Loons feed chiefly upon snails and other aquatic
animals such as are found about their haunts. They also capture many
grasshoppers and similar insects that happen in their way. They
cannot, therefore, be classed among the especially beneficial birds,
neither can they be termed injurious on account of what they eat.
The Gulls, provided as they are with long wings and great powers for
flight, are not confined to the seacoast, hence they reach far inland
in their migrations, feeding extensively upon insects like locusts,
June-beetles, crickets, etc., large numbers of which they destroy
annually. Several kinds of these birds are known to follow the plough
and pick up the white grubs and other insects that are turned up and
laid bare. In early days, when grasshoppers did much harm in this
state, numerous flocks of these birds were seen to feed upon these
insects.
The Cormorants and Pelicans are chiefly destroyers of fishes and
frogs, hence can hardly be classed among the most beneficial forms;
but whether or not they do any more than to maintain the necessary
equilibrium in that particular part of the vast field of nature it is
difficult to judge without time for investigation.
The various Ducks and Geese which are also nearly as aquatic in their
habits as some of the foregoing, frequently leave their haunts and
make excursions into the surrounding country where in summer they feed
upon locusts, beetles, and other injurious insects. They also partake
of considerable quantities of vegetable food, as grains, weed seeds,
grasses, and other herbage. While not included among the insectivorous
forms these birds do much towards diminishing the ever increasing
horde of creeping and jumping things. Ducks and geese on the other
hand are largely utilized by us as food: while their feathers make
comfortable pillows and coverlets.
The Herons, Cranes, and Rails are frequenters of marshes and the
margins of streams and bodies of water, where they assist in keeping
the various forms among the animal life balanced. Fishes, frogs,
snails, insects, and crustaceans are alike devoured by them.
The Snipe, Sandpipers, Plovers, Phalaropes, Curlews, etc., are great
destroyers of insects. Moving as many of them do in great flocks and
spreading out over the meadows, pastures, and hillsides, as well as
among the cultivated fields, they do a large amount of careful police
service in arresting the culprits among insects. They even pry them
out of burrows and crevices in the earth where these creatures lurk
during daytime only to come forth after nightfall to destroy
vegetation. The large flocks of Eskimo Curlews that formerly passed
through eastern Nebraska did magnificent work during years when the
Rocky Mountain Locust was with us, as did also the equally large
flocks of Golden Plovers. The Bartramian Sandpiper even now is a great
factor each summer in checking the increasing locusts on our prairies.
The various members of the Grouse family, while belonging to a
grain-eating group, are certainly quite prominent as insect
destroyers. Especially is this so with respect to the Quail, Prairie
Hen, Sharptailed Grouse, and Wild Turkey, all of which are occupied
most of the summer months in capturing and destroying vast numbers of
such insects as are found on the prairies. Grasshoppers, locusts,
crickets, caterpillars, and similar insects comprise the bulk of their
insect food--forms that are all among the most numerous as well as
destructive species. In writing about these birds as insect
destroyers Prof. Samuel Aughey writes: "I happened to be in the
Republican Valley, in south-western Nebraska, in August, 1874, when
the locust invaded that region. Prairie chickens and quails, that
previous to their coming had a large number of seeds in their
stomachs, when dissected, seemed now for a time to abandon all other
kinds of food. At least from this onward for a month little else than
locusts were found in their stomachs. All the birds seemed now to live
solely on locusts for a while." In winter and at other times of the
year when insect life is scarce and difficult to obtain, these birds
feed more or less extensively upon seeds and other kinds of
vegetation. Some even enter cultivated grounds and seek food that
belongs to the farmer, thereby doing more or less direct injury. The
extent of such injury, of course, depends upon the number of birds
engaged in the depredations, and also on the time over which it is
allowed to extend. If corn and other grain is harvested at the proper
time, but little damage ensues; but if allowed to remain in the field
throughout winter, much of the crop is liable to be taken by the
birds.
[Illustration: QUAIL.]
Perhaps no other bird that frequents the farm pays higher prices for
the grain it eats than does the Quail. Living about the hedgerows,
groves, and ravines, where insect enemies gather and lurk during the
greater part of the year, this bird not only seizes large numbers of
these enemies daily during the summer months when they are "abroad in
the land," but all winter through it scratches among the fallen leaves
and other rubbish that accumulates about its haunts seeking for
hibernating insects of various kinds. Being a timid little creature,
the Quail seldom leaves cover to feed openly in the fields, and
therefore does but little actual harm in the way of destroying grain.
In fact it only takes stray kernels that otherwise might be lost. This
bird is one of the few that feeds upon that unsavory insect, the
chinch-bug; and the number of this pest that occasionally are
destroyed by it is really astonishing. No farmer or fruit-grower
should ever kill a quail himself nor allow anyone else to hunt it on
his premises.
Our domestic fowls, save ducks and geese, from which so much direct
income is derived throughout the year, belong here. It would be folly
on my part to assert that they are useless to the farmer. Besides
furnishing eggs and meat for the table, they are great aids in keeping
down a variety of noxious insects during spring, summer, and fall.
The various species of Doves or Pigeons are not, as a rule, thought of
as being especially harmful, yet repeated examinations of their
stomach contents would indicate that their food seldom, if ever,
consists of anything but grains and various kinds of seeds along with
other particles of vegetation. The good done by these birds as
destroyers of weed seeds more than pays for the harm done by them as
grain-eaters.
Recent careful study with reference to the food habits of Hawks and
Owls carried on by the United States Department of Agriculture go to
show that these birds, with but few exceptions, are the farmer's
friends rather than his enemies. It appears that the good which they
accomplish in the way of destroying mice, gophers, rabbits and other
small mammals along with great quantities of noxious insects far
exceeds the possible harm they do by the occasional destruction of
poultry and other birds. A critical examination of the actual contents
of about twenty-seven hundred stomachs of these birds showed that only
six of the seventy-three species found in the United States are
injurious. Three of these are so rare that they need not be
considered. Of the remaining three the Fish Hawk is only indirectly
injurious: hence but two remain to be considered, viz., the
Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks. "Omitting the six species that feed
largely on poultry and game, 2,212 stomachs were examined, of which
56 per cent contained mice and other small mammals, 27 per cent insects,
and only 31/2 per cent poultry and game birds."
The food habits of both the Turkey Vulture and Carrion Crow, or Black
Vulture, are of such a nature that the destruction of these birds
should be prohibited. In fact, in many of the states this is done by
law. They live almost exclusively upon carrion or decomposing animal
matter, and in this manner aid in the prevention of diseases that
might result from the presence of such filth. They may, however, be
the cause of indirectly spreading hog cholera where animals that have
died from this disease are left unburied or unburned.
The Cuckoos are among the few birds that habitually feed upon hairy
caterpillars, such as the various "tent-making" species. They also
destroy large numbers of other caterpillars, and do not object to
beetles and other insects which they find among the foliage of trees.
Although shy birds they are frequently seen in cities, where they do
their share in protecting the shade trees from the ravages of insect
defoliators.
[Illustration: WOODPECKER.]
Taking the Woodpeckers as a family, there are few persons but who will
readily admit that these birds comprise a very useful group. Feeding,
in fact, as most of them do, upon the larvae of wood-boring insects,
they can readily do much greater good for the actual number of insects
destroyed than if they destroyed only those that feed upon the foliage
of trees. Not unfrequently will a single borer kill an entire tree if
left to itself, while hundreds of foliage-feeding caterpillars of the
same size have but little effect upon the appearance, to say nothing
of the health, of the same tree.
Mr. M. L. Beal, assistant in the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy
of the United States Department of Agriculture, in summing up the
results obtained from the examination of six hundred and seventy-nine
stomachs of these birds, writes as follows:
"In reviewing the results of these investigations and comparing one
species with another, without losing sight of the fact that
comparative good is not necessarily positive good, it appears that of
seven species considered the Downy Woodpecker is the most beneficial."
He then goes on to give the food habits based on contents of the
stomachs of our most common species. "Judged by the stomach
examinations of the Downy and Hairy Woodpecker and Flicker it would be
hard to find three other species of our common birds with fewer
harmful qualities."
The Flicker is one of our most common woodpeckers in Nebraska and does
much towards keeping down a number of different kinds of insects. It
is very fond of ants as a diet, in fact is partial to them, and this
element forms almost half of its entire food-supply during the year.
It also occasionally feeds upon the chinch-bug, as can be attested by
the fact that the stomach of a specimen killed near Lincoln contained
in the vicinity of one thousand of these bugs. It is also a
fruit-eater to the extent of about one-quarter of its entire bill of
fare, but nature, not man, furnishes the supply. It takes the wild
kinds in preference to those that are cultivated.
The Whippoorwill, Night Hawk, and Swifts feed entirely on insects,
and must consequently be classed among the beneficial birds. They all
capture their prey while upon the wing, and naturally destroy large
numbers of troublesome kinds.
The various species of Flycatchers, as the name implies, destroy
insects which they capture for the most part while on the wing. Flies
and allied insects are quite prominent on their bill of fare; but
these by no means are the only kinds of insects destroyed by them.
Many a luckless locust, butterfly, moth or even beetle is snapped up
and devoured by the different species of the family. The Bee-bird, or
Kingbird as it is more frequently called, sometimes even catches bees.
These latter, however, consist largely of drones, hence comparatively
little harm is done.
One should be unprejudiced in order to write a fair biography of even
a bird, or group of birds. To say that I am without such prejudice
with reference to some of the members of the family of birds now to be
considered, would be a falsehood. Still, I shall endeavor to give as
unbiased testimony as possible with reference to their food-habits at
least, and let the reader judge for himself as to what would be the
proper treatment for these birds. Taking the family as a whole that
which is made up of birds like the Crows, Ravens, Magpies, Jays,
Nut-crackers, "Camp-robbers," etc., though some of them have
unenviable names and reputations at least, are not at all as bad as we
are sometimes requested to believe them to be.
The Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and immediate relatives are what might be
termed "omnivorous" in food-habits, eating everything that comes their
way. Crows, however, have been shown to feed largely on insects,
which in great measure at least, offsets the harm done in other
directions. They also feed on various substances, the removal of which
is for the general good.
The Raven is too rare a bird in this state to be taken into
consideration in respect to food-habits, and the Magpie certainly can
be put out of the question of doing any possible harm for the same
reason. This leaves then to be considered, the Jays, of which we seem
to have six or seven distinct kinds; but only two of these are at all
common. The Blue Jay is found over the entire state, and is familiar
to everybody. The second species is found only in the western and
north-western portions among the pine forests, and is known as the
Pinon Jay or "Camp-robber"--the latter name not very flattering to the
bird I must confess.
The Blue Jay does much of the mischief that is laid at the door of the
Robin, orioles, thrushes, and other birds, and then sneaks away
unobserved. He also destroys large numbers of insects and robs the
nest of some small birds.
In the Bobolink, Meadowlark, Orioles, and Black-birds, we have some of
the most important insect destroyers among the feathered tribes. The
Bobolink is with us only during the summer months when it is entirely
insectivorous; and the same can be said of the Cowbird, although the
latter has the bad habit of compelling other birds to rear its young.
In the Red-winged Blackbird we have a friend that we little dream of
when we see the large flocks gathering about our corn-fields during
late summer, and early fall. During the balance of the year it is
engaged most of the time in waging war on various insect pests,
including such forms as the "grub-worms," cut-worms, grasshoppers,
army worm, beet caterpillar, etc. Even when it visits our corn-fields
it more than pays for the corn it eats by the destruction of the worms
that lurk under the husks of a large per cent of the ears in every
field.
[Illustration: BOBOLINK.]
Several years ago the beet fields in the vicinity of Grand Island were
threatened great injury by a certain caterpillar that had nearly
defoliated all the beets growing in many of them. At about this time
large flocks of this bird appeared and after a week's sojourn the
caterpillar plague had vanished, it having been converted into bird
tissues. Numerous other records of the efficiency of their labor as
destroyers of insect pests might be quoted in favor of this bird, but
I do not believe this to be necessary, although considerable evidence
has been recorded of its destroying both fruits and grains.
The Baltimore Oriole has received such a bad reputation here in
Nebraska as a grape thief during the past few years that I feel
inclined to give extra time and space in endeavoring to "clear him"
of such an unenviable charge. This, however, I hardly think necessary
when the facts in the case are known. As insect destroyers both this
bird and the Orchard Oriole have had an undisputed reputation for many
years: and the kinds of insects destroyed by both are of such a class
as to count greatly in their favor. Caterpillars and beetles belonging
to injurious species comprising ninety-six per cent of the food of
three specimens killed is the record we have in their favor. On the
other hand, grapes have been punctured only "presumably by this bird,
since he has so frequently been found in the vineyard and must be the
culprit." Now I myself have seen the Oriole in apple orchards under
compromising circumstances, and have heard pretty strong evidence to
the effect that it will occasionally puncture ripe apples. It also
belongs in the same family with some generally accepted "rascals"
hence I will admit that possibly some of the charges with which he is
credited may be true; but I still believe that most of the injuries
to grapes in this and other states must be laid to the English
Sparrow.
[Illustration: RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD.]
If we take pains to water our birds during the dry seasons they will
be much less apt to seek this supply from the juices of fruits that
are so temptingly near at hand. Place little pans of water in the
orchard and vineyard where the birds can visit them without fear of
being seized by the house cat or knocked over by a missile from the
alert "small boy," and I am sure that the injury to fruit, to a great
extent at least, will cease.
Recent investigations tend to prove that the Grackle or Crow-Blackbird
does more good than harm and should be protected.
Our Sparrows and their allies, taken together, form a very extensive
family of very beautiful as well as useful birds. Like the warblers,
they occupy themselves with searching for and destroying insects all
summer long; but this is not all they do that is good. In fall,
winter, and early spring, when Mother Earth has lost her brilliant
green and rests in sombre browns or beneath ice and snow, the
longspurs, Snow Bunting, Snowbird, and some of the sparrows that have
remained with us are busily engaged in gathering for themselves a
living. They hop and fly about from place to place searching for and
picking up little seeds of grass, grain and weeds, of shrubs and
trees, and appropriating the same to their use, chirping merrily as
they work away. The European House Sparrow, or the English Sparrow as
it is more commonly called, has the worst reputation of the entire
family. But even this bird has some redeeming traits.
The Tanagers are insect destroyers, feeding for the most part on such
forms as attack the foliage of trees.
All of our Swallows are insect destroyers, capturing such forms as
gnats, flies, etc., which they seize while on the wing. The large
colonies of different species of these birds that breed within the
state, as well as those that pass through during their migrations,
destroy great numbers of these insects. They should be protected.
The Waxwings, both the Cedar Bird and Bohemian Waxwing, feed
principally upon berries, etc., which they find throughout the year.
Still, in his studies of the food contents of the stomachs of a
variety of birds taken in a certain orchard that was overrun with
canker worms, Professor Forbes found that the seven specimens of the
Ceder Waxwing had eaten nothing but canker-worms and a few dung
beetles, the latter in such small numbers as to scarcely count. The
number of caterpillars eaten by each bird ranged from 70 to 101.
The Shrikes or "Butcher Birds" are known as veritable "brigands" or
"pirates" when it comes to the destruction of other forms of life.
They are true to their name, and "butcher" for pastime large numbers
of insects, mice, lizards, small snakes, and even a few birds. They
then fly to some thorn bush or barbed-wire fence and impale the
luckless victim and leave it for future use, or to dry up and finally
blow away. The good they do will outweigh the harm.
The food of the various Greenlets or Vireos is made up almost entirely
of insects, of which a large per cent are caterpillars, such as
infest shade trees and the larger shrubs. They should be protected and
encouraged, about the orchard in particular.
In the words of that pleasing writer, Dr. Elliott Coues,[5] "The
Warblers have we always with us, all in their own good time; they come
out of the south, pass on, return, and are away again, their
appearance and withdrawal scarcely less than a mystery; many stay with
us all summer long, and some brave the winters in our midst. Some of
these slight creatures, guided by unerring instinct, travel true to
the meridian in the hours of darkness, slipping past like a 'thief
in the night,' stopping at daybreak from their lofty nights to rest
and recruit for the next stage of the journey. Others pass more
leisurely from tree to tree, in a ceaseless tide of migration,
gleaning as they go; the hardier males, in full song and plumage, lead
the way for the weaker females and yearlings. With tireless industry
do the warblers befriend the human race; their unconscious zeal plays
due part in the nice adjustment of nature's forces, helping to bring
about the balance of vegetable and insect life without which
agriculture would be in vain. They visit the orchard when the apple
and pear, the peach, plum, and cherry are in bloom, seeming to revel
carelessly amid the sweet-scented and delicately-tinted blossoms, but
never faltering in their good work. They peer into the crevices of the
bark, scrutinize each leaf, and explore the very heart of the buds, to
detect, drag forth, and destroy those tiny creatures, singly
insignificant, collectively a scourge, which prey upon the hopes of
the fruit-grower, and which, if undisturbed, would bring his care to
naught. Some warblers flit incessantly in the terminal foliage of the
tallest trees; others hug close to the scored trunks and gnarled
boughs of the forest kings; some peep from the thicket, coppice, the
impenetrable mantle of shrubbery that decks tiny water-courses,
playing at hide-and-seek with all comers; others more humble still,
descend to the ground, where they glide with pretty mincing steps and
affected turning of the head this way and that, their delicate
flesh-tinted feet just stirring the layer of withered leaves with
which a past season carpeted the ground. We may seek warblers
everywhere in the season; we shall find them a continued surprise; all
mood and circumstance is theirs."
[5] Key to North American Birds, p. 288.
Much could be written concerning the food-habits of the various
members of the group of Thrushes, Mocking-birds and Wrens. Three of
the species at least are known to be more or less destructive to
fruits, viz., Catbird, Brown Thrasher, and Mocking-bird. Still, if we
take into account what these birds eat during the entire time spent
within the state, the balance sheet stands in favor of the birds as
insect destroyers. The wrens are pre-eminently insect destroyers, and
the others are not much behind them in this respect.
The members of the family of Nuthatches and Tits feed for the most
part on insects. But we lack very definite figures regarding the kinds
and numbers of insects that each destroys. We can be sure, however,
that any favors shown them will not be thrown away.
The Thrushes, Solitaires, Bluebirds, etc., are all beneficial as
insect destroyers, and might be well compared with the Robin, which is
described quite fully beyond, only they are even less liable to commit
injuries to fruits.