Mr. M. L. Beal, assistant in the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy of the United States Department of Agriculture, in summing up the results obtained from the examination of six hundred and seventy-nine stomachs of these birds, writes as follows: 

“In reviewing the results of these investigations and comparing one species with another, without losing sight of the fact that comparative good is not necessarily positive good, it appears that of seven species considered the Downy Woodpecker is the most beneficial.”  He then goes on to give the food habits based on contents of the stomachs of our most common species.  “Judged by the stomach examinations of the Downy and Hairy Woodpecker and Flicker it would be hard to find three other species of our common birds with fewer harmful qualities.”

The Flicker is one of our most common woodpeckers in Nebraska and does much towards keeping down a number of different kinds of insects.  It is very fond of ants as a diet, in fact is partial to them, and this element forms almost half of its entire food-supply during the year.  It also occasionally feeds upon the chinch-bug, as can be attested by the fact that the stomach of a specimen killed near Lincoln contained in the vicinity of one thousand of these bugs.  It is also a fruit-eater to the extent of about one-quarter of its entire bill of fare, but nature, not man, furnishes the supply.  It takes the wild kinds in preference to those that are cultivated.

The Whippoorwill, Night Hawk, and Swifts feed entirely on insects, and must consequently be classed among the beneficial birds.  They all capture their prey while upon the wing, and naturally destroy large numbers of troublesome kinds.

The various species of Flycatchers, as the name implies, destroy insects which they capture for the most part while on the wing.  Flies and allied insects are quite prominent on their bill of fare; but these by no means are the only kinds of insects destroyed by them.  Many a luckless locust, butterfly, moth or even beetle is snapped up and devoured by the different species of the family.  The Bee-bird, or Kingbird as it is more frequently called, sometimes even catches bees.  These latter, however, consist largely of drones, hence comparatively little harm is done.

One should be unprejudiced in order to write a fair biography of even a bird, or group of birds.  To say that I am without such prejudice with reference to some of the members of the family of birds now to be considered, would be a falsehood.  Still, I shall endeavor to give as unbiased testimony as possible with reference to their food-habits at least, and let the reader judge for himself as to what would be the proper treatment for these birds.  Taking the family as a whole that which is made up of birds like the Crows, Ravens, Magpies, Jays, Nut-crackers, “Camp-robbers,” etc., though some of them have unenviable names and reputations at least, are not at all as bad as we are sometimes requested to believe them to be.