. Beginners' Zoology . it is supposed to be injurious, thecrop should always be examined, and its contents will oftensurprise those who are sure it is a harmful bird. Thewriter once found two frogs, three grasshoppers, and fivebeetles that had been swallowed by a chicken hawkkilled by an irate farmer, but no sign of birds having beenused for food. Fowls should not be raised in open places,but among trees and bushes, where hawks cannot which live exclusively upon fish are, of course,opposed to human interests. Pigeons are destructive tograin; eagles feed chiefly upon other birds. If
. Beginners' Zoology . it is supposed to be injurious, thecrop should always be examined, and its contents will oftensurprise those who are sure it is a harmful bird. Thewriter once found two frogs, three grasshoppers, and fivebeetles that had been swallowed by a chicken hawkkilled by an irate farmer, but no sign of birds having beenused for food. Fowls should not be raised in open places,but among trees and bushes, where hawks cannot which live exclusively upon fish are, of course,opposed to human interests. Pigeons are destructive tograin; eagles feed chiefly upon other birds. If the birds eat the grapes, do not kill the birds, but plantmore grapes. People with two or three fruit trees or a small I/O BEGINNERS ZOOLOGY garden are the only ones that lose a noticeable amount of-food. We cut down the forests from which the birds ob-tain part of their food. We destroy insect pests at greatcost of spraying, etc. The commission the birds chargefor such work is very small indeed. (See pages 177-183.). Fig. 314. — Wood Duck, male {Aix sponsd). Nests in hollow trees throughoutNorth America. Also called summer duck in South. Why ? The English sparrow is one bird of which no good wordmay be said. Among birds, it holds the place held by ratsamong beasts. It is crafty, quarrelsome, thieving, and anuisance. It was imported in 1852 to eat moths. Theresults show how ignorant we are of animal life, and howslow we should be to tamper with the arrangements ofnature. In Southern cities it produces five or six broodseach year with four to six young in each brood. (Noticewhat it feeds its young.) It fights, competes with, anddrives away our native useful birds. It also eats grain andpreys upon gardens. They have multiplied more in Aus- BIRDS 171 tralia and in North America than in Europe, because theyleft behind them their native enemies and their new ene-mies (crows, jays, shrikes, etc.) have not yet developed, toa sufficient extent, the habit of preying upon them. Nature
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