ng and
by their usefulness in destroying animals, insects or plants which are
harmful to man.

But although they are among man's best friends they have been greatly
misunderstood, so that to the many natural enemies that are constantly
preying on birds, we must add the warfare that man himself wages on
them, and the cutting down of their forest homes. This work of bird
destruction has gone on until all the best species are greatly reduced
in numbers and some species have been almost entirely driven out.

To see how serious a matter this is we must study the food habits of
birds, and we shall find that although the different species eat a large
variety of food, in almost every case their natural food is something
harmful to man.

The large American birds, the eagles, hawks, owls and similar kinds, are
called birds of prey because they feed on small birds and animals. Some
of these are of the greatest benefit to the farmer, while others are
altogether harmful. Another large class of birds lives almost entirely
on injurious insects and this class is entitled to the fullest care and
protection from the farmer.

Still another class lives largely on fruits, wild or cultivated, and on
seeds, which may be either the farmer's most valuable grains, or seeds
of the weeds that would choke out the grain.

It can not be denied that birds often do serious damage through their
food habits; but the great mistake that has been made in man's treatment
of birds has been in hastily deciding that if birds are seen flitting
about fields of grain they are destroying the crop. A better knowledge
of their food habits will lead to proper measures for destroying the
harmful kinds and protecting the useful ones.

Successful agriculture could hardly be practised without birds, and the
benefit to man, though amounting each year to millions of dollars, can
hardly be estimated in dollars and cents, since it affects so closely
the size of our crops, the amount of timber saved for use in
manufactures, and even the health of the people.

Here again we see the careful balancing that runs through nature; how
carefully each thing is adjusted to its work. Naturally the balance
between birds, insects and plants would remain true, no one increasing
beyond its proper amount. But when man begins to destroy certain things,
and to cultivate others, this balance is seriously disturbed. The birds
that destroy weed seeds being killed, weeds flourish in such va