. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAX. 65 The value of birds has already been recognized at the antipodes. Australiaii farmers have suffered greatly from inroads of locusts upon their crops and pastures. The Australian correspondence of the Mark Lane Express of March 7, 1892, had a paragraph relating to the value of the Ibis to farmers during the locust incursions of that year
. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAX. 65 The value of birds has already been recognized at the antipodes. Australiaii farmers have suffered greatly from inroads of locusts upon their crops and pastures. The Australian correspondence of the Mark Lane Express of March 7, 1892, had a paragraph relating to the value of the Ibis to farmers during the locust incursions of that year and the year previous. In the Glen Thompson district several large flocks, one said to number fully five hundred birds, were seen eating the young locusts in a wholesale manner. Other insectivorous birds were flourishing upon the same diet. Near Ballarat, Victoria, a swarm of locusts was noted in a paddock; and just as it was feared that all the sheep would have to be sold for want of grass, flocks of Starlings, Spoonbills, and Cranes made their appearance, and in a few days made so complete a destruction of the locusts that only about forty acres of grass were lost.^ American farmers have had many similar experiences. When the Mormons first settled in Utah their crops were almost utterly destroyed by myriads of crickets that came. Fig. 27. —The western cricket that destroyed the settlers' crops at Salt Lake. Natural size; after Glover. down from the mountains. Hon. Geo. Q. Cannon, as tem- porary chairman of the third irrigation congress, told how it happened. The first year's crop having been destroyed, the Mormons had sowed seed the second year. The crop prom- ised well, but when again the crickets appeared, the people were in danger of starvation. In describing the conditions in 1848 Mr. Cannon says : — I Insect Life, Eiley and Howard, 1891-92, Vol. IV, p. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for
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