. 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 . well, but when again the crickets appeared, the peoplewere in dansfcr of starvation. In describinor the conditionsin 1848 Mr. Cannon says : — 1 Insect Life, Riley and Howard, 1891-92, Vol. IV, p. 409. 66 USEFUL BIRDS. Black crickets came down by millions and destroyed our graincrops; jjromising fields of wheat in the morning were by eveningas smooth as a mans hand, — devoure
. 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 . well, but when again the crickets appeared, the peoplewere in dansfcr of starvation. In describinor the conditionsin 1848 Mr. Cannon says : — 1 Insect Life, Riley and Howard, 1891-92, Vol. IV, p. 409. 66 USEFUL BIRDS. Black crickets came down by millions and destroyed our graincrops; jjromising fields of wheat in the morning were by eveningas smooth as a mans hand, — devoured by the crickets. . At thisjuncture sea Gulls came by hundreds and thousands, and before thecrojjs were entirely destroyed these Gulls devoured the insects, so thatour fields were entirely freed from them. . The settlers at SaltLake regarded the advent of the birds as a heaven-sent miracle. . .I have been along the ditclies in tlie morning and have seen lumps ofthese crickets vomited up by tlie Gulls, so that they could again l^eginkilling. These lumps of crickets were probably pellets com-posed of indigestible portions of the insects, regurgitatedby the birds. These crickets {Anahrus siinplex) trav-. Fig. 28. —Ciiills saving crops by killing crickets. V* I I, elled in enormous hordes, stopping at no obstacle, evencrossing rivers. Several times afterward the crops of theMormons were attacked by them, and were saved by Dr. A. K. Fisher is authority for the statement ^ This account of the deliverance of the Mormons by the Gulls is vouched forby many witnesses. See Irrigation Age, 1894, p. 188; also, Insect Life, Vol. VII,p. 275; Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 1871, ; Annual Report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture, 1871, p. 79;and Second Annual Report of the United States Entomological Commission,1878-79, p. 166. VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAN. 67 that the bird referred to is undoubtedly Franklins Gull(I/Cirus franlxlini
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1913
