Some Common Birds Useful To The Farmer

"From a purely practical point of view the most important of the relations of native birds to man are the economic. The esthetic value of birds is great -- greater, indeed, than that of any other group of animals; and that this is a real and especially a treasured value is not to be denied. But it is in their relation to insect and other enemies of crops that birds are most directly associated with the welfare of mankind, and their value in this particular should be made as widely known as possible. This bulletin is one of a series designed to assist in doing this. Not all birds are beneficial and all facts tending to show in which class each species belongs will be set forth. the useful kinds far outnumber the injurious, however, and so great is their value as insect destroyers in the United States that to them may be given the credit of being on e of the greatest controlling factors in limiting the development of insect pests and in preventing many disastrous outbreaks. In the following pages are discussed the habitat, food habits, a nd relation to agriculture of more than 50 species of birds common to farming sections."--Page 2

This book was written by ​​Ellenborough Lascelles Beal, an American pioneer of economic ornithology. In the following pages are discussed the food habits of more than 50 birds belonging to 12 families. Many are eastern forms which are represented in the West by slightly different species or subspecies, but unless the food habits differ they are not separately described. In some cases specific percentages of food are given, but for the most part the statements are made without direct reference to the data on which they are based.

Excerpt from Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer Sparrows are not obtrusive birds, either in plumage, song, or action. There are some 40 species, with nearly as many subspecies, in North America. Not more than half a dozen forms are generally known in any one locality. All the species are more or less migratory, but so widely are they distributed that there is probably no part of the country where some can not be found throughout the year. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.