. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. Photo by K. II. Beebe BROWN THRiVSHER (SEE PAGE 677j Hedge-rows, shrubbery about the borders of woods, scrubbv growth, or thickets in dry helds, are ahke frequented by the thrasher. Generally speaking, he is an inhabitant of the undergrowth, where he passes much time on the ground foraging among the fallen leaves. He IS an active, suspicious bird, who does not like to be watched, and expresses his annoy- ance with an unpleasant kissing note or sharply whistled ivhecu. Professor Forbes, Director of the Illi- nois State Laborator
. [Articles about birds from National geographic magazine]. Birds. Photo by K. II. Beebe BROWN THRiVSHER (SEE PAGE 677j Hedge-rows, shrubbery about the borders of woods, scrubbv growth, or thickets in dry helds, are ahke frequented by the thrasher. Generally speaking, he is an inhabitant of the undergrowth, where he passes much time on the ground foraging among the fallen leaves. He IS an active, suspicious bird, who does not like to be watched, and expresses his annoy- ance with an unpleasant kissing note or sharply whistled ivhecu. Professor Forbes, Director of the Illi- nois State Laboratory of Natural His- tory, found 175 larvre of Bibio—a fly which in the larval stage feeds on the roots of grass—in the stomach of a single robin, and the intestine contained prob- ably as many more. Many additional cases could be cited showing the intimate relation of birds to insect life and emphasizing the necessity of protecting and encouraging these little- appreciated allies of the agriculturist. The service rendered man by birds in killing the small rodents so destructive to crops is performed by hawks and owls—birds the uninformed farmer con- siders his enemies. The truth is that, with two exceptions—the sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawk—all our commoner hawks and owls are beneficial. In his exhaustive study of the foods of these birds, Dr. A. K, Fisher, Assistant Orni- thologist of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, has found that 90 per cent of the food of the red-shoul- dered hawk, commonly called "chicken- hawk" or "hen-hawk," consists of in- jurious mammals and insects, while 20c castings of the barn-owl contained the skulls of 454 small mammals, no less than 225 of these being skulls of the destruct- ive field or meadow mouse. now THE BIRDS HEEP MANKIND Still, these birds are not only not pro- tected, but in some States a price is actu- alh' set upon their heads ! As destroyers of the seeds of harmful plants, the good done by b
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