Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 251, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1917 — The Small Birds. [ARTICLE]

The Small Birds.

I am glad to note that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has Issued a warning against the destruction of small birds, which has been recommended in some quarters, says a writer In the Westminster Gazette. It has published a pamphlet on the subject, pointing cut that nearly all the small birds of ureat Britain are engaged In the work of destroying insect pests from March to August, and In a lesser degree all the year through. On the other hand, no bird lives wholly or principally on cultivated grain or fruit. We have heard of districts being ravaged by caterpillars, which have multiplied this year enormously, owing to the heavy mortality of birds during the severe winter. And yet in a village where I was staying recently the farmers were trying to exterminate the sparrows, which were living mainly on caterpillars, as I could see from the food brought by a pair of them to their nestlings under the root,