[Illustration: Chickadee]
The native birds are one of our nation’s most valuable assets. Destroy
them, and in a comparatively few years the insects will have multiplied
to such an extent that trees will be denuded of their foliage, plants
will cease to thrive and crops cannot be raised. This is not fancy but
plain facts. Look at the little Chickadee on the side of this page. She
was photographed while entering a bird box, with about twenty-five plant
lice to feed her seven young; about two hundred times a day, either she
or her mate, made trips with similar loads to feed the growing
youngsters.
It has been found, by observation and dissection, that a Cuckoo consumes
daily from 50 to 400 caterpillars or their equivalent, while a Chickadee
will eat from 200 to 500 insects or up to 4,000 insect or worm eggs. 100
insects a day is a conservative estimate of the quantity consumed by each
individual insectivorous bird. By carefully estimating the birds in
several areas, I find that, in Massachusetts, there are not less than
five insect-eating birds per acre. Thus this state with its 8,000 square
miles has a useful bird population of not less than 25,600,000, which,
for each day’s fare, requires the enormous total of 2,560,000,000
insects. That such figures can be expressed in terms better understood,
it has been computed that about 120,000 average insects fill a bushel
measure. This means that the daily consumption, of chiefly obnoxious
insects, in Massachusetts is 21,000 bushels. This estimate is good for
about five months in the year, May to September, inclusive; during the
remainder of the year, the insects, eggs and larvæ destroyed by our
Winter, late Fall and early Spring migrants will be equivalent to nearly
half this quantity.
It is the duty, and should be the pleasure, of every citizen to do all in
his or her power to protect these valuable creatures, and to encourage
them to remain about our homes. The author believes that the best means
of protection is the disseminating of knowledge concerning them, and the
creating of an interest in their habits and modes of life. With that
object in view, this little book is prepared. May it serve its purpose
and help those already interested in the subject, and may it be the
medium for starting many others on the road to knowledge of our wild,
feathered friends.