File:Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting (14747673584).jpg

Identifier: usefulbirdstheir00for (find matches)
Title: Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Forbush, Edward Howe, 1858-1929 Massachusetts. State Board of Agriculture
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: (Boston, Mass.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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in numbers that they have become pests.Farmers have been obliged to resort to extraordinary meas-ures to destroy them. In Montana such large sums werepaid out in six months of 1887 in bounties for the destruc-tion of ground squirrels or gophers and prairie dogs, thata special session of the Legislature was called to repeal thelaw, lest it should bankrupt the State. In New England our common hares (miscalled rabbits)are kept in check in thicklj^ settled regions by hunters; butthe field mice, which are not subject to this check, haveincreased so rapidly in many localities that during the hardwinters of 1903-04 and 1904-05 thousands of young fruittrees in the New England States were attacked by them andruined. These mice have become so numerous that in someplaces young trees cannot be grown unless protected fromthem. They also destroy a great quantity of grass and grain,some small fruit, and vegetables. Unfortunately, the foodhabits of these little animals have never been fully studied.
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PLATE VIII. — A Useful Mouse-eating Owl. (From Warreu,after Audubou.) VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAN. 79 Enough is known, however, to show that they have somebeneficial habits, as well as some injurious ones ; but theyconstitute a very potential force for harm, on account of theirgreat fecundity. I do not know how many young our com-mon species can produce in a year, but two female Europeanfield mice kept in captivity gave birth to thirty-six youngwithin five months. The tally was ended by the escape ofone of the i:)air, else there probaljly would have been re-corded a still larger number. The interval between the birthof one litter of young and that of the next was only fromtwenty-four to twenty-nine days. This shows the dangerthat might easil) arise from the unchecked increase of acreature which, feeding upon both crops and trees, is capableof unmeasured devastation. It also shows the folly of ex-tirpating those Hawks and Owls which are known to feedlargely on field mice, for they constitu

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