CHAPTER XXV

BIRDS AS PLANTS’ FRIENDS

“NOW, Feather Flop said—” began Mary Frances; “I mean, if Feather Flop had been in the garden there wouldn’t have been so many cutworms.”

“Mary Frances!” exclaimed Billy. “How ridiculous! You don’t seem to understand that that old rooster would have eaten up all the young plants himself!”

Mary Frances bit her lip to keep from laughing as she saw Feather Flop peeping around the tree in back of Billy.

“If that rooster were a robin or a wren it would be different,” went on Billy. “Just listen, Mary Frances!” pulling a paper out of his pocket.

“‘One robin has been known to feed his family five yards of worms a day.

“‘A chicka-dee will dispose of 5500 eggs of the canker-worm moth in one day.

“‘A flicker eats no less than 9000 ants a day.

“‘A pair of wrens have been seen to carry 100 insects to their young in an hour. They are especially fond of plant lice and cutworms.

“‘Little humming birds lick plant lice off foliage with lightning rapidity.

“‘The yellow-billed cuckoo eats hundreds of tent caterpillars in a day.

“‘Seed-eating birds destroy myriads of seeds of destructive weeds—actually eating hundreds of tons of seed.

“‘The Department of Agriculture of the United States estimates that the tree sparrow alone saves the American farmer $90,000,000 in a year by eating seeds of weeds.’”

“That isn’t the English sparrow,” laughingly interrupted Mary Frances.

“No,” replied Billy, “not so much can be said in its favor.”

“How do people know what the different birds eat?” asked Mary Frances. “Did someone watch to see what each different bird took for a meal?”

“No.” Billy referred to his clipping. “Scientists have examined the contents of the stomachs of the birds, and have learned what food each kind of bird uses. There was a time when people imagined that robins stole so many cherries and berries that it was a good deed to kill them. Now they have found that they destroy so many injurious insects that they do not begrudge them a few cherries. Besides, if mulberry trees are planted nearby, they will prefer their fruit to the cherries.”

“Oh, Billy,” cried Mary Frances, “isn’t it wonderful! Not only do birds help us by destroying harmful insects and seeds, but they help us by their beauty. I believe they are the most beautiful of living things! They could have helped us just as much, and have been as ugly as—cutworms.”

“Yes,” laughed Billy, “I believe that is so, but it takes a girl to think such things out. The most remarkable fact to me, however, is that without birds we would die of starvation. It has been estimated that if they were absent for one season alone, the United States would lose over $300,000,000, and if they disappeared entirely, agriculture and farming would be impossible within a few years.”

“Bees and birds,” commented Mary Frances softly, “keep us from starving. How wonderful it all seems. Why, Billy, it must have all been planned out when God made the world!”

“I have thought of that myself, Mary Frances,” said Billy; “it’s one of those thoughts a fellow doesn’t often speak out loud. I don’t know why.”

“Everybody ought to take care of birds,” went on Mary Frances. “Surely the reason they don’t, is because they do not understand how wonderfully they help us. Do you recall Miss Carey’s poem—‘An Order for a Picture’? I learned a part of it in my literature course last winter:

* * * * * * *

“‘Afraid to go home, sir; for one of us bore A nest full of speckled and thin-shelled eggs, The other, a bird, held fast by the legs, Not so big as a straw of wheat: The berries we gave her she wouldn’t eat, But cried and cried, till we held her bill, So slim and shining, to keep her still.

“‘At last we stood at our mother’s knee.

* * * * * * *

You, sir, know That you on the canvas are to repeat Things that are fairest, things most sweet, Woods and corn fields and mulberry-tree, But, oh, that look of reproachful woe! High as the heavens your name I’ll shout, If you paint me the picture, and leave that out.’”

“I know just what that means,” said Billy, “for one day—only I’ve never told it, for I knew how it would grieve mother—I killed a little wren. I was quite a little chap and had no real intention of doing such a thing. I aimed a stone at the little thing, and down it came—dead.”

“Well, Billy, there’s this comfort,” said Mary Frances; “it didn’t suffer. That’s very different from injuring it and letting it live on in agony.”

“Yes,” said Billy, “you see I didn’t understand; boys don’t, I guess.”

“Birds and bees,” Mary Frances repeated, “keep us from starving. I suppose you know of many other beneficial animals or insects.”

“Oh, Billy, let’s have lots of birds in our garden!” she went on.

“Why, how?” asked Billy. “Perhaps we could put food out for them.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t thinking of that. I thought maybe we could put houses where they would build.”

“Of course,” replied Billy; “and we could keep a small bath tub full of water for them.”

“What fun!” exclaimed Mary Frances. “Billy, do you know how to build the right kind of houses for each different kind of bird?”

“No, I do not,” answered Billy; “I know of only a few. They are the ones our manual training teacher showed us. I have some pictures right here in my book. It’s queer I didn’t think of them!”

“Let me see,” cried Mary Frances. “Oh, Billy, will you make some later on?”

“I’m to make them in school next term,” explained Billy. “Mr. Carpenter, our teacher, told me about these houses one day when we were out walking. We happened to talk of what Professor Weed had told us in a lecture on birds, you see.”

“Do let me read about these houses,” begged Mary Frances, looking over his shoulder at the picture of—

A ROBINS’ SLEEPING PORCH

Robin Redbreast will not live in an enclosed house, but desires merely a shelter where the family can have plenty of fresh air.

“I believe in living out-of-doors,” says Mrs. Robin Redbreast, “and I shall not send the children to school in a schoolhouse, no matter how sanitary. They shall be educated in the open air. There is a lot more to be learned outdoors than indoors.”

A BUNGALOW FOR WRENS

Jenny Wren and her husband like a little perch to rest upon before entering their home. In order to keep the English sparrow from being inquisitive and troublesome, make the entrance only 1 inch in diameter where Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow cannot enter.

“They are not a bit nice neighbors,” fusses gentle Jenny Wren. “They pick a quarrel over nothing, then peck our family to pieces if they can.”

THE MARTENS’ HOTEL

Do not charge Mr. and Mrs. Marten for lodgings. Instead be thankful that they bring their friends and relations with them, for Martens come in companies and love to linger where invited. They destroy myriads of insects.

THE BLUE BIRDS’ COTTAGE

These heavenly blue birds, with pinkish plumage on their breasts, add great beauty to our home gardens, and fortunate is the owner of the bird house which they select “rent free.” They are desperately afraid of English sparrows, or more of them would tenant the houses round about the home garden. Blue birds eat up whole families of garden pests at a meal.

“My, aren’t those bird houses dear!” said the little girl. “I hope we’ll have one of each kind some day. Then we’ll feel that our garden is well protected from injurious insects. Are there any other creatures which destroy them beside toads and birds?”