We are slowly inching towards the first day of spring… March 20th is only a few weeks away! As I write this, the streets outside the museum are still piled high with mounds of fluffy white, but the sun is shining and the snow feels more magical than malicious.
With the advent of spring comes the return of songbirds. To prepare for our feathered friends, I thought I would share an article published in the early days of spring 1865. On March 25 of that year, the following passage extolling the divine virtues of birds was printed in the pages of the Scott County Argus:
Usefulness of Birds
Jay in a tree. Photo taken by Leroy Lebens, 1960. From the SCHS Collections
Birds on a telephone wire. Photo taken by Leroy Lebens, around 1960. From the SCHS Collections.
“It takes mankind a great while to learn the ways of Providence and to understand that things are better contrived by him than can be contrived by him than they can contrive them. Of late people are beginning to learn that they have mistaken the character of most little birds, and have not understood the object of the Almighty in creating them. They are looked upon as the friends, and great friends of those who sow and reap. It has been seen that they mostly live on insects which are among the worst enemy of the agriculturist, and that if they take, now and then, a grain of wheat, they levy but a small tax for the immense services rendered. In this altered state of things, legislatures are passing laws for the protection of little birds and increasing the penalties to be enforced upon the bird-killers. An illustration of the virtue of some of the winged tribe is before us in a paragraph from a paper in Birmingham, New York: — a farmer from that neighborhood wished to borrow a gun of a neighbor for the purpose of killing some yellow birds in his field of wheat, eating up his grain. The neighbor declined the loan of the gun, however to gratify his curiosity he shot one of them, opened its crop, and found in it two hundred weevils and but four grains of wheat, and in those four grains weevils had burrowed! This was a most instructive lesson and worth the life of the poor bird as valuable as it was. The bird is said to resemble the canary and sings nicely. — One of our citizens, a careful observer and owner of many farms called for our attention to this paragraph and said, use as a text for sermonizing, for the benefit of farmers and other who may look upon little birds as inimical to their interests. He said he has studied the subject as a lover of natural history, as well as a hunter and farmer, and he knows there is hardly a bird that flies that is not a friend to the farmer and gardener. We think the gentleman is right, and we hop his suggestions will have their due weight. — Working Farmer”
Interested in expanding your avian knowledge? Join us on the Second Thursday evening of each month for educational, informative and interesting programs! We will be presenting guest speakers, author talks, tours and DIY projects.
April’s Second Thursday will take place on April 11th, 2019 at 6:30pm. Join us to learn a bit about bird life in Scott County, and then make your very on wooden bird door-knocker. Interested? Register now RIGHT HERE
