Page:A primer of forestry, with illustrations of the principal forest trees of Western Australia.djvu/108

 102 CHAPTER XIII.

BIRDS AND FORESTRY.

Birds play a most important part in the economy of Nature and, as a consequence, their activities often come in contact with the interests of man. A few species must, without a doubt, be classed as entirely harmful; many do a certain amount of damage to trees and crops; but the majority are certainly the friends of man, because of the enormous number of insects they devour throughout the year.

Many birds live upon insects all the year round; some make insects and vermin their staple diet, whilst others feed regularly upon insects and seeds of various kinds. Another small group feeds upon insects, and the honey from flowers and fruit. It is probable that this group, comprising Honey Eaters, many Parrots, and their allies, feeds upon honey when that is available, turning to scale-insects, which contain a large amount of "honey-dew," and to fruit, when the natural food is scarce.

The birds that enter into the province of the Forester are all land birds, most of which belong to the Order Passeriformes or Perching Birds. The most useful of this Order are Swallows, Fly Catchers, Caterpillar Eaters, Robins, Thick Heads or Whistlers, Cuckoo-Shrikes, Butcher Birds, Warblers, Tits, Wrens, Wood-Swallows, Tree Runners, Tree Creepers, Pardalotes, some kinds of Honey Eaters, Squeakers, Magpies and Crows.

The small order Coccyges, or Cuckoo, contains many very useful birds which are entirely insectivorous and of great value, as they seem to prefer the woolly and hairy caterpillars rejected by other birds as unpalatable.

Among the Coraciiformes, or Picarian Birds, are nocturnal Frogmouths or Moreporks and the Nightjars, which feed largely upon insects caught on the wing at night time. Other members of this order are the Kingfishers, Bee Eaters, and Swifts.

Of our Strigiformes, or Owls, it may be said that, all of them eat insects as well as small rodents and other vermin. Some marbled Owls shot in the Stirling Ranges in October, 1920, had been living entirely upon grasshoppers and other insects. .

Several of the Accipitriformes, Eagles, etc., prefect an insect diet. One species Cerchneis cenchroides, the Kestrel, is known in New South Wales as the Grasshopper Hawk, because of the large number of grasshoppers it consumes. The Brown Hawk and the Black Shouldered Kite may also be considered to be insectivorous members of the Order.

A bird usually confines its attention to a well-defined hunting ground. Crows, Magpies, Wood Swallows, Pipits, Ground Thrushes, and other ground birds generally search for their food upon the ground itself or dig for it with their powerful beaks, in this way accounting for many root boring pests as well as the pupae of those numerous beetles, moths,, and butterflies which pupate in the ground.

Many birds seem to be extremely fond of young locusts and grasshoppers, catching them as they emerge from their underground hatching chamber.

The Tree Runners and the Tree Creepers examine the crevices in the bark of the trunk for beetles and other insects; Tits, Wrens, and many others, clean the lower foliage, whilst the Shrike Tits are busy on the topmost branches.

The Swallows, Martins, and Swifts, which always obtain their food on the wing, are intimately connected with the trees which form the breeding places for many minute insects, and likewise seem to have their definite beats. Some fly just above the ground, others, like the Fairy Martin, reserve their attentions for the middle regions, whilst the Tree Martin and the House Swallow prefer to seek their food