Transcriber Note Text emphasis is denoted as _Italics_. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Farmers’ Bulleting 630 Contribution from the Bureau of Biological Survey, Henry W. Henshaw, Chief. February 13, 1915. SOME COMMON BIRDS USEFUL TO THE FARMER. By F. E. L. Beal, _Assistant Biologist_. Note.—The habitat, food habits, and economic relation to agriculture of more than 50 birds common to farming sections are discussed in this bulletin. It supersedes Farmers’ Bulletin 54. CONTENTS. Page. The bluebirds 2 The robins 3 The titmice 4 The wrens 6 Brown thrasher 7 Catbird 7 The swallows 8 Towhee 9 The sparrows 9 House finch 11 The grackles 12 Brewer blackbird 12 Baltimore oriole 13 Bullock oriole 14 The meadowlarks 14 The red-winged blackbirds 15 Bobolink 17 Crow 17 Blue jay 19 Pacific coast jays 20 The phœbes 21 The kingbirds 23 Nighthawk 24 The woodpeckers 25 The cuckoos 27 INTRODUCTION. Whether a bird is beneficial or injurious depends almost entirely upon what it eats. In the case of species which are very abundant, or which feed to some extent on the crops of the farmer, the question of their average diet becomes one of supreme importance, and only by stomach examination can it be satisfactorily solved. Field observations are at best but fragmentary and inconclusive and lead to no final results. Birds are often accused of eating this or that product of cultivation, when an examination of the stomachs shows the accusation to be unfounded. Accordingly, the Biological Survey has conducted for some years past a systematic investigation of the food of those species which are most common about the farm and garden.