INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. Recent investigations, especially m the western slates and territories, havti brought more fully into notice the valuable qualities of certain birds, as to their power of decreasing the multiplication of destructive insects. Although ornithologists have long given their advice and warnings, it has been the mistake of a considerable portion of the agricultural population of the country to believe that certain birds, which are called gramiuivorous, committed sufficient depredations to make them obnoxious, and therefore they have destroyed them. These fears may be well founded in a few instances, in regard to those predatory birds which destroy other and valuable birds, as the crow, the crow-blackbird, and the blue jay. Unfor tunatelythese cunning birds are not the ones which have in for the greatest share of condemnation. The blue-headed grackle, or Brewer's blackbird, a perfectly innocent little creature, and a friend of man, has been destroyed in the western country in countless numbers because it visited the cornfields in search of a kind of grub which lived upon the ears of corn. To get the grub the bird picked open the husks at the end of the ear, or through them at the sides. This did little damage to the ear, which the grub would have destroyed. But the farmer, fearful that the birds were carrying off his crop, soaked grain in strychnine, and strewing it upon the ground, caused the birds to die by the million. Prof. Samuel Aughey, of Lincoln, Neb., has furnished a list of locust-feeding birds for the first annual .report of the U. S. entomological commission, which is extremely interesting and instructive, • and from his chapter the notice of Brewer's blackbird above given is taken. It seems that this bird is purely insectivorous and does not live upon grain or seeds at all, unless it cannot get insects, grubs, or worms. Prof. Aughey states that the robin is not abundant in Nebrat44, but is slowly increasing. A few were killed to ascertain the contents of their stomachs. Out of six, four of them had 51 to 59 locusts in their crops, and less than half that number of other insects. This was in the years 1865, 1875, and 1877, not great locust years, as 1874. A number of wood thrushes were bought from boys and their stomachs found filled with locusts (1865-75). The family of wrens were found partiCularly the friends of the farmer in their locust devouring habits. He men tions eight species, the long-billed marsh wren being perhaps the greatest feeder. The parents in one nest were seen to 31 locusts from dry bluffs about a mile distant in the space of an hour. The short-billed marsh wren was not detected in locust carrying, but is believed to be a locust feeder. The house wren feeds upon quantities of small locusts, but was never seen to capture a full grown insect. The family sylvicalicke, or American warblers, of the same order (insessores), of which prof. Aughey mentions some 30 different species belonging to different genera, are nearly all great locust eaters. The golden warbler was a curious exception, as its stomach contained only half as ,many locusts as of other insects, while the converse was the rule with other species. The
swallows and sparrows were found to be great locust eaters. The cliff-swallow, or cave swallow, is perhaps the principal insect destroyer, on account of its numbers. It breeds on the sides of cliffs and under the eaves of buildings. U. S. geologist Hayden has observed great numbers of these birds along the Missouri river, especially along the chalk bluffs near Niobrara, and prof. Aughey also observed them in the same locality in 1877. Three miles e. of the town on the sides of a perpendicular chalk rock he counted 2,100 nests of the cliff-swallow. They cat countless numbers of locusts. Of the family amfielidm, or borabycillidtv, or wax-wing fatally, the "brotherly love" vireo, a common bird in eastern Nebraska, eats vast numbers of locusts and other insects, and the warbling vireo, abundant in n.w. Nebraska, is quite as great a locust and other insect feeder. The shrike family (lanida), particularly the white-romped shrike, which are quite abundant in Nebraska, are great locust eaters, but in their stomachs were also found portions of other insectivorous birds. They are, therefore, not to be highly commended. Among the American starlings, the bobolink, reed-bird, or rice-bird, is very abundant in Nebraska, where it breeds. It is popularly supposed to be exclusively graminivorons, but prof. Aughey discovered that on occasions it was highly insectivorous, as their stomachs, whenever examined, were found to contain, along with seeds, many locusts. The king bird, or bee martin, as well as many other "flycatchers," of which 10 or more species are mentioned, are, of course, highly insectivorous, but where locusts abound these insects are their favorite food, the phoebe bird particularly being a locust-gormand. The cuckoos, which are shot and sold by the butchers, were often found to have over 45 locusts in their stomachs, none less than 37. The golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker, (was.often found with no seeds in its stomach. Eight flickers were bought from a sports man who had shot them in a wood in Dixon county, and their stomachs were filled with locusts and other insects. Two of them had eight grains, four of them from two to six grains, and two of them had none, in their stomachs. This beautiful bird. the robin, and even the merry bobolink, are hunted and shot, even in our eastern states, where they arc not near plentiful enough, by unthinking men, and they ought to be protected. Mr. Cyrus Thomas, one of the members of the entomological commission for examining into the subject of the Rocky mountain locust., in chap. xii. of the report above mentioned, on "the usefulness of birds," maintains that, with very few exceptions, the whole class of birds are the friends of man. We know that many of them are his companions, and certainly more would be if he did not lay his destructive hands upon them. Sec BIRDS and ORNITHOLOGY.