SMALL BIRDS' DIET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 69, 2 October 1939, Page 7

SMALL BIRDS' DIET

INSECTS AND WEED-SEEDS Captain E. V. Sanderson, president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, states that the campaigns of County Councils is Canterbury against small birds are brother reminder of the need ot a proper study on the habits of the nnported birds, a.nd a thorough undeistanding of their place in, natuie, so that the earth may continue to be habitable by man. He says that no proper investigation of that matter has yet been undertaken in New Zea hind, and that unless there is right: guidance in this field, there isal\\a\s the possibility of serious blunders in wars of extermination against certain introduced species ol small l)irds. in a well-known book, "The Practical Value of Birds,'' Junius Henderson, Professor of Natural History r.L the University of Colorado, gave the world some very helpful information about the economic value of some much-persecuted species of small birds. Here are some passages in, which New Zcalanders should be interested: — "The great slaughter oifi wild birds and the destruction of from 80,000,000' to 100,000,000 of their eggs annually in France for some time resulted in the poor crops of 1861 because of the increase of insects, and the summer following a great bird drive near Bridgewater, Massachusi

etts ? the trees in the neighbourhood were defoliated by insects." "The majority of seed-eating birds the weed seeds or grind them and tlius destroy large quantities of highly injurious kinds, doing much good in that way. In a patch of smartwecd a space of 18 inches square was carefully examined and 1130 cracked seeds were found, with only two whole seeds. In late May practically no seeds we're left in the patch. It has been estimated by the U.S. Biological Survey that the vari oils snecies of soa.rrows alone saved the farmers 89,260 000 dollars in 1910 by the destruction of weed seeds. "A single plant of one of these species may mature as many as one hundred thousand seeds in a season, and if unchecked would pro.luce in tlie spring of the third year tenj billion plants. Sparrows and Juncoes so thoroughly c loaned out the seed? 3rom a big tangle of smartwecd on a Maryland farm that none of the weeds appeared during the following year. "The Finch family, the largest fam ily of birds, includ'.no sparrows of many species, Grosbeaks, Crossbills, and their allies, are pre-eminently seed-eaters, having bills especially adapted to the cracking otf the seeds of various weeds. This is well exemplified in the Canary. An examination of 4000' sinmachs of native North American Finches and spar-rows of various species showing that during the colder half of the year their food consists almost entirely of . weed seeds.''