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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #62678 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62678)
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-Project Gutenberg's USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 630, by F. E. L. Beal
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 630
-       Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer
-
-Author: F. E. L. Beal
-
-Release Date: July 17, 2020 [EBook #62678]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK USDA FARMERS' BULLETIN NO. 630 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Tom Cosmas
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber Notes
-
-Text emphasis is denoted as _Italics_.
-
-
-
-
-                     U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
-
-                        FARMERS BULLETIN No. 630
-
-
-
-
-                               SOME COMMON
-
-                              BIRDS USEFUL
-
-                                 to the
-
-                                 FARMER
-
-
-FROM a purely practical point of view the most important of the relations
-of native birds to man are the economic. The esthetic value of birds is
-great--greater, indeed, than that of any other group of animals; and that
-this is a real and especially treasured value is not to be denied. But it
-is in their relation to insect and other enemies of crops that birds are
-most directly associated with the welfare of mankind, and their value in
-this particular should be made as widely known as possible.
-
-This bulletin is one of a series designed to assist in doing this. Not
-all birds are beneficial, and all facts tending to show in which class
-each species belongs will be set forth. The useful kinds far outnumber
-the injurious, however, and so great is their value as insect destroyers
-in the United States that to them may be given the credit of being one of
-the greatest controlling factors in limiting the development of insect
-pests and in preventing many disastrous outbreaks.
-
-In the following pages are discussed the habitat, food habits, and
-relation to agriculture of more than 50 species of birds common to
-farming sections.
-
-
-Washington, D. C.
-
-Issued February 13, 1915; revised April, 1926
-
-
-
-
-SOME COMMON BIRDS USEFUL TO THE FARMER.[1]
-
-
-By F. E. L. Beal, Late _Assistant Biologist, Division of Food Habits
-Research, Bureau of Biological Survey_.
-
-[1] This bulletin is largely a revision of Farmers' Bulletin 54, by
-Prof. F. E. L. Beal. The parts relating to the crow and blue Jay were
-contributed by E. R. Kalmbach, assistant biologist, and the discussion
-of the nighthawk and bobwhite by W. L. McAtee, in charge. Food Habits
-Research. Professor Beal, author of the remainder of the bulletin, died
-October 1, 1916.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-                           Page.                                Page.
-  The bluebirds               2        Bullock oriole             14
-  The robins                  3        The meadowlarks            14
-  The titmice                 4        The red-winged blackbirds  15
-  The wrens                   6        Bobolink                   17
-  Brown thrasher              7        Crow                       17
-  Catbird                     7        Blue jay                   19
-  The swallows                8        Pacific coast jays         20
-  Towhee                      9        The phœbes                 21
-  The sparrows                9        The kingbirds              23
-  House finch                11        Nighthawk                  24
-  The grackles               12        The woodpeckers            25
-  Brewer blackbird           12        The cuckoos                27
-  Baltimore oriole           13        Bobwhite                   28
-
-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
-examinations can it be satisfactorily answered. 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 a
-systematic investigation of the food of those species which are most
-common about the farm and garden.
-
-Within certain limits birds eat the kind of food that is most accessible,
-especially when their natural food is scarce or wanting. Thus they
-sometimes injure the crops of the farmer who has unintentionally
-destroyed their natural food in his improvement of swamp or pasture.
-Most of the damage done by birds and complained of by farmers and
-fruit growers arises from this very cause, the berry-producing shrubs
-and seed-bearing weeds have been cleared away, and the birds have no
-recourse but to attack the cultivated grain or fruit which has replaced
-their natural food supply. The great majority of land birds subsist upon
-insects during the period of nesting and molting, and also feed their
-young upon them during the first few weeks. Many species live almost
-entirely upon insects, taking vegetable food only when other subsistence
-fails. It is thus evident that in the course of a year birds destroy an
-incalculable number of insects, and it is difficult to overestimate the
-value of their services in restraining the great tide of insect life.
-
-In winter, in the northern part of the country, insects become scarce or
-entirely disappear. Many species of birds, however, remain during the
-cold season and are able to maintain life by eating vegetable food, as
-the seeds of weeds. Here again is another useful function of birds in
-destroying these weed seeds and thereby lessening the growth of the next
-year.
-
-In the following pages are discussed the food habits of more than
-50 birds belonging to 12 families. Many are eastern forms which are
-represented in the West by slightly different species or subspecies, but
-unless the food habits differ they are not separately described. In some
-cases specific percentages of food are given, but for the most part the
-statements are made without direct reference to the data on which they
-are based.
-
-
-
-
-THE BLUEBIRDS.
-
-
-The eastern bluebird[2] (fig. 1), one of the most familiar and welcome
-of our feathered visitors, is a common inhabitant of all the States east
-of the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf of Mexico to southern Canada. In
-the Mississippi valley it winters as far north as southern Illinois, and
-in the East as far as Pennsylvania. It is one of the earliest northern
-migrants, and everywhere is hailed as a harbinger of spring. Very
-domestic in habits, it frequents orchards and gardens, and builds its
-nests in cavities of trees, crannies in farm buildings, or boxes provided
-for its use.
-
-[2] _Sialia sialis_.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Bluebird. Length, about 6½ inches.]
-
-The bluebird has not been accused, so far as known, of stealing fruit or
-of preying upon crops. An examination of 855 stomachs showed that 68 per
-cent of the food consists of insects and their allies, while the other
-32 per cent is made up of various vegetable substances, found mostly in
-stomachs taken in winter. Beetles constitute 21 per cent of the whole
-food, grasshoppers 22, caterpillars 10, and various other insects 9,
-while a number of spiders and myriapods, about 6 per cent, comprise
-the remainder of the animal diet. All these are more or less harmful,
-except a few predacious beetles, which amount to 9 per cent. In view
-of the large consumption of grasshoppers and caterpillars, we may at
-least condone this offense, if such it may be called. The destruction
-of grasshoppers is very noticeable in August and September, when these
-insects make up about 53 per cent of the diet.
-
-It is evident that in the selection of its food the bluebird is governed
-more by abundance than by choice. Predacious beetles are eaten in spring,
-as they are among the first insects to appear; but in early summer
-caterpillars form an important part of the diet, and these are later
-replaced by grasshoppers. Beetles are eaten at all times, except when
-grasshoppers are more easily obtained.
-
-So far as its vegetable food is concerned the bluebird is positively
-harmless. The only trace of any useful product in the stomachs consisted
-of a few blackberry seeds, and even these probably belonged to wild
-rather than cultivated varieties. Following is a list of the various
-seeds which were found; Blackberry, chokeberry, juniperberry, pokeberry,
-partridgeberry, greenbrier, Virginia creeper, bittersweet, holly,
-strawberry bush, false spikenard, wild sarsaparilla, sumac (several
-species), rose haws, sorrel, ragweed, grass, and asparagus. This list
-shows how little the bluebird depends upon the farm or garden to supply
-its needs and how easily, by encouraging the growth of some of these
-plants, many of which are highly ornamental, the bird may be induced to
-make its home on the premises.
-
-Two species of bluebirds inhabit the Western States--the mountain
-bluebird[3] and the western bluebird.[4] In their food habits they are
-even more to be commended than their eastern relative. Their insect food
-is obtainable at all times of the year, and the general diet varies only
-in the fall, when some fruit, principally elderberries, is eaten, though
-an occasional blackberry or grape is also relished. In an examination of
-217 stomachs of the western bluebird, animal matter (insects and spiders)
-was found to the extent of 82 per cent and vegetable matter to the extent
-of 18 per cent. The bulk of the former consists of bugs, grasshoppers,
-and caterpillars. Grasshoppers, when they can be obtained, are eaten
-freely during the whole season. Caterpillars also are a favorite food
-and are eaten during every month of the year; March is the month of
-greatest consumption, with 50 per cent, and the average for the year is
-20 per cent. Two stomachs taken in January contained 64 and 50 per cent,
-respectively, of caterpillars. Beetles also are eaten and comprise mostly
-harmful species.
-
-[3] _Sialia currucoides_.
-
-[4] _Sialia mexicana_ subspecies.
-
-The vegetable matter consists of weed seeds and small fruits. In December
-a few grapes are eaten, but elderberries are the favorites whenever they
-can be found. It is only when these are in their greatest abundance that
-vegetable exceeds animal food.
-
-
-
-
-THE ROBINS.
-
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Robin. Length, about 10 inches.]
-
-The robin[5] (fig. 2), in many parts of the country one of the most
-cherished of our birds, is found throughout the States east of the Great
-Plains, and is represented farther west and south by slightly different
-subspecies.[6], [7] It breeds far north through Canada, and is found even
-in Alaska. Although the great bulk of the species leaves the Northern
-States in winter, a few individuals remain in sheltered swamps, where
-wild berries furnish abundant food. The robin is an omnivorous feeder
-and its food habits have sometimes caused apprehension to the fruit
-grower, for it is fond of cherries and other small fruits, particularly
-the earlier varieties. For this reason many complaints have been lodged
-against robins, and it has been necessary to permit the killing of the
-birds in some fruit-growing regions.
-
-[5] _Planesticus migratorius_.
-
-[6] _Planesticus migratorius propinquus_.
-
-[7] _Planesticus migratorius achrusterus_.
-
-Examinations of 1,236 stomachs show that 42 per cent of its food is
-animal matter, principally insects, while the remainder is made up
-largely of small fruits or berries. Over 16 per cent consists of beetles,
-about one-third of which are useful ground beetles, taken mostly in
-spring and fall when other insects are scarce. Grasshoppers make up about
-5 per cent of the whole food, but in August they comprise 17 per cent.
-Caterpillars form about 9 per cent, while the rest of the animal food,
-about 11 per cent, is made up of various insects, with a few spiders,
-snails, and angleworms. All the grasshoppers, caterpillars, and bugs,
-with a large portion of the beetles, are injurious, and it is safe to say
-that noxious insects comprise more than one-third of the robin's food.
-
-Vegetable food forms 58 per cent of the stomach contents, over 42 per
-cent being wild fruits and only a little more than 8 per cent being
-possibly cultivated varieties. Cultivated fruit amounting to about 25 per
-cent was found in the stomachs in June and July, but only a trifle in
-August. Wild fruit, on the contrary, is eaten every month and constitutes
-a staple food during half the year. No less than 65 species of fruit were
-identified in the stomachs; of these, the most important were 4 species
-of dogwood, 3 of wild cherries, 3 of wild grapes, 4 of greenbrier, 2
-of holly, 2 of elder; and cranberries, huckleberries, blueberries,
-barberries, service berries, hackberries, and persimmons; together with 4
-species of sumac and various other seeds not strictly fruit.
-
-The depredations of the robin seem to be confined to the smaller and
-earlier fruits, few, if any, complaints being made that it eats apples,
-peaches, pears, grapes, or even late cherries. By the time these are
-ripe the forests and hedges are teeming with wild fruits which the bird
-evidently finds more to its taste. The cherry, unfortunately for man,
-ripens so early that it is almost the only fruit accessible at a time
-when the bird's appetite has been sharpened by a long-continued diet of
-insects, earthworms, and dried berries, and it is no wonder that at first
-the rich juicy morsels are greedily eaten.
-
-While the robin takes some cultivated fruits, it must be remembered that,
-being a natural enemy of the insect world, it has been working during the
-whole season to make that crop a possibility, and when the fruit ripens
-the robin already has a standing account with the farmer for services
-rendered, with the credits up to this time entirely on his side.
-
-Much has been written about the delicate discrimination of birds for
-choice fruit and their selection of only the finest and costliest
-varieties. This is contrary to observed facts. Birds, unlike human
-beings, seem to prefer fruit that, like the mulberry, is sweetly insipid,
-or that, like the chokecherry or holly, has some astringent or bitter
-quality. The so-called black alder, a species of holly, has bright
-scarlet berries tasting as bitter as quinine, that ripen late in October
-and remain on the bushes through November. Though frost grapes, the fruit
-of the Virginia creeper, and several species of dogwood are abundant at
-the same time, the birds have been found to eat the berries of the holly
-to a considerable extent. It is, moreover, a remarkable fact that the
-wild fruits upon which birds largely feed are those which man neither
-gathers for his own use nor adopts for cultivation.
-
-Where wild fruit is not abundant, a few fruit-bearing shrubs and vines
-judiciously planted will serve for ornament and provide food for the
-birds. The Russian mulberry is a vigorous grower and a profuse bearer,
-ripening at the same time as the cherry. So far as observation has gone,
-most birds seem to prefer its fruit to any other. It is believed that a
-number of mulberry trees planted around the garden or orchard would fully
-protect the more valuable fruits.
-
-
-
-
-THE TITMICE.
-
-
-Birds of the titmouse family, though insignificant in size, are far from
-being so in the matter of food habits. What they lack in size of body
-they more than make up in numbers of individuals. While in the case of
-some larger birds, as, for instance, the flicker, there is one pair of
-eyes to look for food for one large stomach, we have in the case of the
-ten times as numerous titmice an equivalent stomach capacity divided into
-10 parts, each furnished with a pair of eyes and other accessories, as
-wings and feet. As against the one place occupied by the larger bird, 10
-are being searched for food at the same time by the smaller species.
-
-The character of the food of titmice gives a peculiar value to their
-services, for it consists largely of the small insects and their eggs
-that wholly escape the search of larger birds. Throughout the year most
-of the species of this group remain on their range, so that they are
-constantly engaged in their beneficial work, continuing it in winter when
-the majority of their coworkers have sought a milder clime. It is at
-this season that the titmice do their greatest good, for when flying and
-crawling insects are no more to be found, the birds must feed upon such
-species as they find hibernating in crevices, or upon the eggs of insects
-laid in similar places. In winter's dearth of moving insects the search
-for such animal food as may be found is perforce thorough and unremitting.
-
-Within the boundaries of the United States are some 17 species of
-titmice, with nearly as many races or subspecies, so that there is
-no portion of the country lacking one or more forms. The western
-coast region is peculiarly rich In representatives of the family. In
-the eastern portion of the country the best-known and most widely
-distributed species is the common black-capped chickadee[8] (fig. 3).
-This bird, or some of its subspecies, occupies the whole of that part of
-the United States north of the latitude of Washington and extends into
-Canada. It is a prolific breeder, usually rearing from six to eight young
-in a brood.
-
-[8] _Penthestes atricapillus_.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Black-capped chickadee. Length, about 5¼
-inches.]
-
-Examination of 289 stomachs of this chickadee shows that its food
-consists of 68 per cent animal matter (insects) and 32 per cent vegetable
-matter. The former is made up of small caterpillars and moths and their
-eggs. Prominent among the latter are the eggs of the tent caterpillar
-moths, both the orchard and forest species. As these are two of our most
-destructive insects, the good done by the chickadee in devouring their
-eggs needs no comment. During the winter the chickadee's food is made
-up of larvæ, chrysalids, and eggs of moths, varied by a few seeds, but
-as spring brings out hordes of flying, crawling, and jumping insects,
-the bird varies its diet by taking also some of these. Flies and bugs
-are the favorites until the weather becomes quite warm, when beetles and
-small wasps also are enjoyed. Among the bugs may be mentioned the plant
-lice and their eggs which are eaten in winter. The beetles nearly all
-belong to the group of snout beetles, more commonly known as weevils.
-These insects are mostly of small size, and nearly all are known to the
-farmer or fruit raiser as pests. Seventeen of them were found in one
-stomach. Grasshoppers do not at any time constitute an important element
-of the food of the chickadee, as they are too large for so small a bird;
-moreover, they are for the most part terrestrial Insects, while the bird
-is essentially arboreal. Small wasps and ants are eaten to some extent
-Spiders constitute an Important element of the food and are eaten at all
-times of the year, the birds locating them when they are hibernating in
-winter, as well as when they are active in summer. The vegetable food of
-the chickadee consists largely of small seeds, except in summer, when
-they are replaced by pulp of wild fruit. The wax from the seeds of poison
-ivy Is eaten during the winter months, but the seeds themselves are not
-taken. In this respect the chickadee differs from most other birds, which
-swallow the seeds whole; these, after digesting the wax, pass the seeds
-through the alimentary canal, or regurgitate them, and so scatter them
-broadcast to reproduce the noxious plants.
-
-In the southern part of the country the Carolina chickadee[9] and the
-tufted tit[10] replace the black-cap, but their food habits are so
-similar that there is practically no difference in the work done. In the
-West several other species occur; one of the most interesting is the
-bush tit[11] which, with several subspecies, occupies the whole Pacific
-coast region. They are active, social little creatures, and except for a
-short time during the breeding season are found in flocks, flitting from
-tree to tree, busily hunting for Insects and their eggs. The contents
-of 66 stomachs of these birds were found to consist mostly of injurious
-insects to the extent of 83 per cent. Of these the most important was a
-small hemipterous insect which amounted to more than half of the stomach
-contents. These insects are of considerable economic importance, as they
-frequently infest grapevines and other plants to a harmful extent Several
-stomachs were almost exclusively filled with these minute creatures, some
-containing as many as 100 individuals.
-
-[9] _Penthestes carolinensis_.
-
-[10] _Bæolophus bicolor_.
-
-[11] _Psaltriparus minimus_.
-
-Perhaps the most important and interesting insect found was the black
-olive scale, which occurred in 24 stomachs and amounted to a little more
-than 18 per cent of the food. In addition, a number of the stomachs were
-more or less filled with another scale, which was not further identified.
-A number of small snout beetles (weevils) were eaten and some small
-caterpillars; there were also the remains of a spider.
-
-The vegetable food of the species seemed to consist mostly of seeds, but
-they were so broken up as to defy recognition. A little fruit pulp and a
-little mast were also found.
-
-Among the stomachs of the bush tits examined were those of one brood
-of eight nestlings about 10 days old. The vegetable matter in these
-stomachs was only three-fourths of 1 per cent and consisted of one seed
-and some rubbish. The animal matter was made up of beetles, wasps, bugs,
-caterpillars and pupæ, and spiders. The greatest interest lies in the
-fact that every one of these stomachs contained pupæ of the codling
-moth, on an average of over five to each. The oak tree in which these
-birds were found was in a belt of timber near a neglected orchard which
-the parent birds used as a foraging ground, and they did their best to
-remedy the neglect of the owner. As feeding and digestion in the case of
-nestling birds is almost continuous during the hours of daylight, the
-above record would be several times repeated during a day's feeding.
-There were probably not less than a dozen nests of the bush tit along
-the border of this orchard, and these birds must have exerted a great
-restrictive influence upon the increase of the codling moth, as well as
-of other insects in that vicinity.
-
-
-
-
-THE WRENS.
-
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 4.--House wren. Length, about 4¾ inches.]
-
-The diminutive house wren[12] (fig. 4) frequents barns and gardens, and
-particularly old orchards in which the trees are partially decayed. He
-makes his nest in a hollow where perhaps a woodpecker had a domicile the
-year before, but he is a pugnacious character, and if he happens to fancy
-one of the boxes put up for bluebirds, he does not hesitate to take it He
-is usually not slow to avail himself of boxes, gourds, tin cans, or empty
-jars placed for his accommodation.
-
-[12] _Troglodytes aëdon_.
-
-In food habits the house wren is entirely beneficial. He may be said to
-live upon animal food alone, for an examination of 88 stomachs showed
-that 98 per cent of the contents was made up of insects or their allies,
-and only 2 per cent was vegetable food, including bits of grass and
-similar matter, evidently taken by accident with the insects. Half
-of this food consisted of grasshoppers and beetles; the remainder of
-caterpillars, bugs, and spiders. As the wren is a prolific breeder,
-frequently rearing in a season from 12 to 16 young, a family of these
-birds must cause considerable reduction in the number of insects in a
-garden. Wrens are industrious foragers, searching every tree, shrub, and
-vine for caterpillars, and examining every post and rail of the fence and
-every cranny in the wall for insects or spiders.
-
-The house wren is only one of a numerous group of small birds of similar
-habits. There are within the limits of the United States 28 species
-and subspecies of wrens, occupying more or less completely the whole
-country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With the exception of the marsh
-wrens,[13] they all appear to prefer some cosy nook for a nesting site,
-and, as it happens, the farm buildings afford just the place desired.
-This has led several of the wrens to seek out the habitations of man,
-and he is benefited by their destruction of noxious insects. Wrens have
-rarely been accused of harm, and their presence should be encouraged
-except when undue interference with the nests of other birds is noted.
-
-[13] _Telmatodytes palustris_ and _Cistotherus stellaris_.
-
-
-
-
-BROWN THRASHER.
-
-
-The brown thrasher[14] (fig. 5) breeds throughout the United States
-east of the Great Plains, and winters in the South Atlantic and Gulf
-States. It visits the garden or orchard, its nest, however, being in
-dense shrubbery or groves. The thrasher's favorite time for singing is
-in early morning, when, perched on the top of a bush or tree, it gives
-an exhibition of vocal powers which would do credit to the mockingbird.
-Indeed, in the South, where the latter bird is abundant, the thrasher is
-known as the sandy mocker.
-
-[14] _Toxostoma rufum_.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Brown thrasher. Length, about 11 inches.]
-
-The food of the brown thrasher consists of both fruit and insects. An
-examination of 636 stomachs showed 59 per cent of vegetable and 41 per
-cent of animal food, practically all insects, and mostly taken in spring
-before fruit was ripe. Half the insects were beetles and the remainder
-chiefly grasshoppers, caterpillars, bugs, and spiders. A few predacious
-beetles were eaten, but on the whole the work of the species as an insect
-destroyer may be considered beneficial.
-
-Eight per cent of its food is made up of fruits like raspberries and
-currants which are or may be cultivated, but the raspberries at least
-are as likely to belong to wild as to cultivated varieties. Grain, made
-up mostly of scattered kernels of oats and corn, is merely a trifle,
-amounting to only 3 per cent. Though some of the corn may be taken from
-newly planted fields, it is amply paid for by the destruction of May
-beetles which are eaten at the same time. The rest of the food consists
-of wild fruit or seeds. Taken all in all, the brown thrasher is a useful
-bird, and probably does as good work in its secluded retreats as it would
-about the garden, for the swamps and groves are no doubt the breeding
-grounds of many insects that migrate thence to attack the crops of the
-farmer.
-
-
-
-
-CATBIRD.
-
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Catbird. Length, about 9 inches.]
-
-The catbird[15] (fig. 6), like the thrasher, is a lover of thickets and
-delights to make its home in a tangle of wild grapevines, greenbriers,
-and shrubs, where it is safe from attack and can find its favorite food
-in abundance. It is found throughout the United States west to the Rocky
-Mountains, and extends also from Washington, Idaho, and Utah northward
-into the Provinces of Canada. It winters in the Southern States, Cuba,
-Mexico, and Central America.
-
-[15] _Dumetella carolinensis_.
-
-Reports from the Mississippi Valley indicate that the catbird is
-sometimes a serious annoyance to fruit growers. The reason for such
-reports may possibly be found in the fact that on the prairies
-fruit-bearing shrubs, which afford so large a part of this bird's food,
-are conspicuously absent With the settlement of this region comes an
-extensive planting of orchards, vineyards, and small-fruit gardens, which
-furnish shelter and nesting sites for the catbird as well as for other
-species. There is in consequence a large increase in the numbers of the
-birds, but no corresponding gain in the supply of native fruits upon
-which they were accustomed to feed. Under these circumstances what is
-more natural than for the birds to turn to cultivated fruit for their
-food. The remedy is obvious: Cultivated fruits can be protected by the
-simple expedient of planting the wild species which are preferred by the
-birds. Some experiments with catbirds in captivity show that the Russian
-mulberry is preferred to any cultivated fruit.
-
-The stomachs of 645 catbirds were examined and found to contain 44 per
-cent of animal (insect) and 56 per cent of vegetable food. Ants, beetles,
-caterpillars, and grasshoppers constitute three-fourths of the animal
-food, the remainder being made up of bugs, miscellaneous insects, and
-spiders. One-third of the vegetable food consists of cultivated fruits,
-or those which may be cultivated, as strawberries, raspberries, and
-blackberries; but while we debit the bird with the whole of this, it is
-probable--and in the eastern and well-wooded part of the country almost
-certain--that a large part is obtained from wild vines. The rest of the
-vegetable matter is mostly wild fruit, as cherries, dogwood, sour gum,
-elderberries, greenbrier, spiceberries, black alder, sumac, and poison
-ivy. Although the catbird sometimes does considerable harm by destroying
-small fruit, it can not on the whole be considered injurious. On the
-contrary, in most parts of the country it does far more good than harm.
-
-
-
-
-THE SWALLOWS.
-
-
-Seven common species of swallows are found within the limits of the
-United States, four of which have abandoned to some extent their
-primitive nesting habits and have attached themselves to the abodes of
-man.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Barn swallow. Length, about 7 inches.]
-
-In the eastern part of the country the barn swallow[16] (fig. 7) now
-builds exclusively under roofs, having entirely abandoned the rock
-caves and cliffs in which it formerly nested. More recently the cliff
-swallow[17] has found a better nesting site under the eaves of buildings
-than was afforded by the overhanging cliffs of earth or stone which it
-once used and to which it still resorts occasionally in the East and
-habitually in the unsettled West. The martin[18] and the white-bellied,
-or tree, swallow[19] nest either in houses supplied for the purpose, in
-abandoned nests of woodpeckers, or in natural crannies in rocks. The
-northern violet-green swallow,[20] the rough-winged swallow,[21] and the
-bank swallow[22] still live in practically such places as their ancestors
-chose.
-
-[16] _Hirundo erythrogastra_.
-
-[17] _Petrochelidon lunifrons_.
-
-[18] _Progne subis_.
-
-[19] _Iridoprocne bicolor_.
-
-[20] _Tachycineta thalassina_.
-
-[21] _Stelgidopteryx serripennis_.
-
-[22] _Riparia riparia_.
-
-Field observation convinces an ordinarily attentive person that the food
-of swallows must consist of the smaller insects captured in mid-air or
-picked from the tops of tall grass or weeds. This observation is borne
-out by an examination of stomachs, which shows that the food is made up
-of many small species of beetles which are much on the wing; many species
-of flies, together with large quantities of flying ants; and a few
-insects of similar kinds. Most of these are either injurious or annoying,
-and the numbers destroyed by swallows are not only beyond calculation but
-almost beyond imagination.
-
-Unlike many other groups of birds, the six species of swallows found in
-the Eastern States extend in a practically unchanged form across the
-continent, where they are reinforced by the northern, or Pacific-coast,
-violet-green swallow.
-
-It is a mistake to tear down from the eaves of a barn the nests of a
-colony of cliff swallows, for so far from disfiguring a building they
-make a picturesque addition to it, and the presence of swallows should
-be encouraged by every device. It is said that cliff and barn swallows
-may be induced to build their nests in a particular locality, otherwise
-suitable, by providing a quantity of mud to be used by them as mortar.
-Barn swallows may also be encouraged by cutting a small hole in the gable
-of the barn, while martins and white-bellied swallows will be grateful
-for boxes like those for the bluebird, but placed in a higher situation.
-
-
-
-
-TOWHEE.
-
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Towhee. Length, about 8 inches.]
-
-The towhee, chewink, or ground robin[23] (fig. 8), as it is variously
-known, inhabits nearly the whole of the United States east of the Great
-Plains. It breeds from the Middle States northward and winters in the
-southern half of the country. Naturally associated with the catbird and
-brown thrasher, it lives in much the same places, though it is more given
-to haunting hedgerows along roads and fences. After snow has disappeared
-in early spring an investigation of the rustling so often heard among the
-leaves near a fence or in a thicket will frequently disclose a towhee
-hard at work scratching for his dinner after the manner of a hen; and
-in these places and along the sunny border of woods old leaves will
-be found overturned where the bird has been searching for hibernating
-beetles and larvæ. The good which the towhee does in this way can hardly
-be overestimated, since the death of a single insect at this time,
-before it has had an opportunity to deposit its eggs, is equivalent to
-the destruction of a host later in the year. The towhee has also been
-credited with visiting potato fields and feeding upon the potato beetle.
-Its vegetable food consists of seeds and small wild fruits, but no
-complaint on this score is known to have been made. So for as observation
-goes, the bird never touches either cultivated fruit or grain; in fact,
-it is too shy and retiring even to stay about gardens for any length of
-time.
-
-[23] _Pipilo erythrophthalmus_.
-
-
-
-
-THE SPARROWS.[24]
-
-[24] The sparrows here mentioned are all native species. A full account
-of the English, or house, sparrow (_Passer domesticus_), including its
-introduction, habits, and depredations, was published In Bull. No. 1
-of the Division of Ornithology in 1889. For information in regard to
-combating the English sparrow, see U. S. Department of Agriculture
-Leaflet 61, English Sparrow Control.
-
-
-
-Sparrows are not obtrusive birds, either in plumage, song, or action.
-There are some 40 species, with nearly as many subspecies, in North
-America. Not more than half a dozen forms are generally known in any one
-locality. All the species are more or less migratory, but so widely are
-they distributed that there is probably no part of the country where some
-can not be found throughout the year.
-
-While sparrows are noted seed eaters, they do not by any means confine
-themselves to a vegetable diet. During the summer, and especially in
-the breeding season, they eat many insects and feed their young largely
-upon the same food. Examination of stomachs of three species--the song
-sparrow[25] (fig. 9), chipping sparrow,[26] and field sparrow[27]
-(fig. 10)--shows that about one-third of the food consists of insects,
-comprising many injurious beetles, as snout beetles or weevils, and
-leaf beetles. Many grasshoppers are eaten. In the case of the chipping
-sparrow these insects form one-eighth of the food. Grasshoppers would
-seem to be rather large morsels, but the bird probably confines itself to
-the smaller species; indeed, the greatest amount (over 36 per cent) is
-eaten in June, when the larger species are still young and the smaller
-most numerous. Besides the insects already mentioned, many wasps and
-bugs are taken. Predacious and parasitic hymenopterous insects and
-predacious beetles, all useful, are eaten only to a slight extent, so
-that as a whole the insect diet of the native sparrows may be considered
-beneficial. There are several records of potato-bug larvæ eaten by
-chipping sparrows.
-
-[25] _Melospiza melodia_.
-
-[26] _Spizella passerina_.
-
-[27] _Spizella pusilla_.
-
-Their vegetable food is limited almost exclusively to hard seeds. This
-might seem to indicate that the birds feed to some extent upon grain, but
-the stomachs examined show only one kind, oats, and but little of that.
-The great bulk of the food is made up of grass and weed seeds, which form
-almost the entire diet during winter, and the amount consumed is immense.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Song sparrow. Length, about 6½ inches.]
-
-In the agricultural region of the upper Mississippi Valley, by roadsides,
-on borders of cultivated fields, or in abandoned fields, wherever they
-can obtain a foothold, masses of rank weeds spring up and often form
-almost impenetrable thickets which afford food and shelter for immense
-numbers of birds and enable them to withstand great cold and the most
-terrible blizzards. A person visiting one of these weed patches on a
-sunny morning in January, when the thermometer is 20° or more below
-zero, will be struck with the life and animation of the busy little
-inhabitants. Instead of sitting forlorn and half frozen, they may be
-seen flitting from branch to branch, twittering and fluttering, and
-showing every evidence of enjoyment and perfect comfort. If one of them
-is captured it will be found in excellent condition; in fact, a veritable
-ball of fat.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Field sparrow. Length, about 5½ inches.]
-
-The snowbird[28] and tree sparrow[29] are perhaps the most numerous of
-all the sparrows. Examination of many stomachs shows that in winter the
-tree sparrow feeds entirely upon seeds of weeds. Probably each bird
-consumes about one-fourth of an ounce a day. In an article contributed in
-1881 to the New York Tribune the writer estimated the amount of weed seed
-annually destroyed by these birds in Iowa. On the basis of one-fourth
-of an ounce of seed eaten daily by each bird, and an average of 10 birds
-to each square mile, remaining in their winter range 200 days, there
-would be a total of 1,750,000 pounds, or 875 tons of weed seed consumed
-in a single season by this one species. Large as are these figures, they
-unquestionably fall far short of the reality. The estimate of 10 birds
-to a square mile is very conservative, for in Massachusetts, where the
-food supply is less than in the Western States, the tree sparrow is even
-more abundant than this in winter. The writer has known places in Iowa
-where several thousand tree sparrows could be seen within the space of a
-few acres. This estimate, moreover, is for a single species, while, as a
-matter of fact, there are at least half a dozen birds (not all sparrows)
-that habitually feed during winter on these seeds. Farther south the
-tree sparrow is replaced in winter by the white-throated sparrow,[30]
-the white-crowned sparrow,[31] the fox sparrow,[32] the song sparrow,
-the field sparrow, and several others; so that all over the land a vast
-number of these seed eaters are at work during the colder months reducing
-next year's crop of worse than useless plants.
-
-[28] _Junco hyemalis_.
-
-[29] _Spizella monticola_.
-
-[30] _Zonotrichia albicollis_.
-
-[31] _Zonotrichia leucophrys_.
-
-[32] _Passerella iliaca_.
-
-
-
-
-HOUSE FINCH
-
-
-Of all the sparrow groups, there is probably no member, unless it be
-the exotic form known as the English sparrow,[33] that has by reason
-of Its food habits called down so many maledictions upon Its head as
-the house finch,[34] red head, or linnet, as it is variously called.
-This bird, like the other members of its family, is by nature a seed
-eater, and before the beginning of fruit raising in California probably
-subsisted upon the seeds of weeds, with an occasional taste of some wild
-berry. Now, however, when orchards have extended throughout the length
-and breadth of the State and every month from May to December sees
-some ripening fruit, the linnets take their share. As their number Is
-legion, the sum total of the fruit that they destroy is more than the
-fruit raiser can well spare. As the bird has a stout beak, it has no
-difficulty in breaking the skin of the hardest fruit and feasting upon
-the pulp, thereby spoiling the fruit and giving weaker-billed birds a
-chance to sample and acquire a taste for what they might not otherwise
-have molested. Complaints against this bird have been many and loud, more
-especially in the years when fruit crops first came to be an important
-factor in the prosperity of the Pacific coast. At that time the various
-fruits afforded the linnets a new and easily obtained food, while
-cultivation had reduced their formerly abundant supply of weed seed.
-When the early fruit growers saw their expected golden harvest suddenly
-snatched away or at least much reduced in value by the little marauders,
-it is no wonder that they were exasperated and wished to destroy the
-authors of the mischief.
-
-[33] _Passer domesticus_.
-
-[34] _Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis_.
-
-In order to test the matter thoroughly and ascertain whether these birds
-ate any other kind of food that might to some extent offset the damage
-inflicted upon the fruit, the horticulturists and ornithologists of
-California were requested to secure a number of the stomachs of these
-birds and send them to the Biological Survey. An agent was also sent to
-the fruit-raising sections, who watched the birds in the orchards and
-collected a number of them. In this way 1,206 stomachs were obtained
-and carefully examined, and the result shows that animal food (insects)
-constituted 2.44 per cent and vegetable food 97.56 per cent of the
-stomach contents, not counting gravel.
-
-So small a proportion of animal food can not, of course, mean a great
-destruction of insects. As these stomachs were collected in every month,
-with the greater number taken during the summer, it is evident that
-whatever good one may expect from the linnet must not be looked for
-in this direction. Unlike most of the sparrow family, the linnet does
-not feed its young upon Insects to any great extent. The contents of
-the stomachs of a number of nestlings were carefully examined, and the
-only animal food was found to consist of wooly plant lice. These also
-constituted the great bulk of the animal food eaten by adults.
-
-The vegetable food of the species consists of three principal
-items--grain, fruit, and weed seeds. Grain amounts to less than 1½
-per cent in August, which is the month of greatest consumption, and the
-average for the year is a trifle more than one-fourth of 1 per cent.
-Fruit attains its maximum in September, when it amounts to 27 per cent
-of the whole food, but the average for the year is only 10 per cent. The
-seeds of weeds constitute the bulk of the diet of the linnet, and in
-August, the month of least consumption, amount to about 64 per cent of
-the food. The average for the year is 86 per cent.
-
-From the foregoing it is evident that whatever the linnet's sins may
-be, grain eating is not one of them. In view of the great complaint
-made against its fruit-eating habits, the small quantity found in the
-stomachs taken is somewhat of a surprise. But it must be remembered that
-the stomach contents do not tell the whole story. When a bird takes a
-single peck from a cherry or an apricot, it spoils the whole fruit, and
-in this way may ruin half a dozen in taking a single meal. It is safe to
-say that the fruit pulp found In the stomach does not represent more than
-one-fifth of what is actually destroyed. That the linnets are persistent
-and voracious eaters of early fruits, especially cherries and apricots,
-every fruit raiser hi California will bear testimony. That the damage
-is often serious no one will deny. It is noticeable, however, that the
-earliest varieties are the ones most affected; also, that in large
-orchards the damage is not perceptible, while in small plantations the
-whole crop is frequently destroyed.
-
-
-
-
-THE GRACKLES.
-
-
-The crow blackbird or grackle[35] (fig. 11) in one or more of its
-subspecies is a familiar object in all the States east of the Rocky
-Mountains. Throughout the year it is resident as far north as southern
-Illinois, and in summer extends its range into the Canadian Provinces.
-In the Mississippi Valley it is one of the most abundant of birds,
-preferring to nest in the artificial groves and windbreaks near farms
-instead of in the natural "timber" which it formerly used. It breeds also
-in parks and near buildings, often in considerable colonies. Farther
-east, in New England, it is only locally abundant, though frequently seen
-in migration. In the latter days of August and throughout September it is
-found in immense numbers before moving southward.
-
-[35] _Quiscalus quiscula_.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Purple grackle. Length, about 12 inches.]
-
-The grackle is accused of many sins, such as stealing grain and fruit and
-robbing the nests of other birds. An examination of 2,346 stomachs shows
-that nearly one-third of its food consists of insects, most of which are
-injurious. The bird also eats a few snails, crawfishes, salamanders,
-small fish, and occasionally a mouse. The stomach contents do not
-indicate that it robs other birds' nests to any great extent, as remains
-of birds and birds' eggs amount to less than half of 1 per cent.
-
-It is on account of its vegetable food that the grackle most deserves
-condemnation. Grain is eaten during the whole year, and only for a short
-time in summer is other food attractive enough to induce the bird to
-alter its diet. The grain taken in winter and spring probably consists of
-waste kernels from stubble. The stomachs do not indicate that the bird
-pulls sprouting grain; but the wheat eaten in July and August and the
-corn eaten in the fall are probably from fields of standing grain. The
-total amount of grain consumed during the year constitutes 45 per cent
-of the food, but it is safe to say that at least half is waste grain and
-consequently of no value. Although the crow blackbird eats a few cherries
-and blackberries in their season, and in the fall some wild fruit, it
-apparently does no damage in this way.
-
-Large flocks of grackles no doubt do considerable injury to grain crops,
-and there seems to be no remedy, except the destruction of the birds,
-which is in itself expensive. During the breeding season, however, the
-species does much good by eating insects and by feeding them to its
-young, which are reared almost entirely upon this food. The bird does the
-greatest amount of good in spring, when it follows the plow in search of
-large grubworms, of which it is so fond that it sometimes literally crams
-its stomach full of them.
-
-
-
-
-BREWER BLACKBIRD.
-
-
-The Brewer blackbird[36] takes the place in the Western States of the
-grackle, or crow blackbird, which lives in the Mississippi Valley and
-farther east and is very similar in appearance and habits. It breeds east
-to the Great Plains and north into Canada, and winters over most of its
-breeding range in the United States and south to Guatemala. At home in
-fields, meadows, and orchards, and about ranch buildings and cultivated
-lands generally, it nests in bushes and weeds, sometimes in trees, and is
-very gregarious, especially about barnyards and corrals. The bird feeds
-freely in stockyards and in cultivated fields, and when fruit is ripe
-does not hesitate to take a share During the cherry season in California
-the birds are much in the orchards. In one case they were observed
-feeding on cherries, but when a neighboring fruit grower began to plow
-his orchard almost every blackbird in the vicinity was upon the newly
-opened ground close after the plowman's heels in its eagerness to secure
-the insects turned up.
-
-[36] _Euphagus cyanocephalus_.
-
-The laboratory investigation of this bird's food covered 312 stomachs,
-collected in every month and representing especially the fruit and grain
-sections of southern California. The animal portion of the food was 32
-per cent and the vegetable 68 per cent.
-
-Caterpillars and their pupæ amounted to 12 per cent of the whole food
-and were eaten every month. They include many of those pests known as
-cutworms. The cotton-boll worm, or corn-ear worm, was identified in at
-least 10 stomachs, and in 11 were found pupæ of the codling moth. The
-animal food also included other insects, and spiders, sow bugs, snails,
-and eggshells.
-
-The vegetable food may be divided into fruit, grain, and weed seeds.
-Fruit was eaten in May, June, and July, not a trace appearing in any
-other month, and was composed of cherries, or what was thought to be
-such, strawberries, blackberries or raspberries, and fruit pulp or skins
-not further identified. However, the amount, a little more than 4 per
-cent for the year, was too small to make a bad showing, and if the bird
-does no greater harm than is involved in its fruit eating it is well
-worth protecting. Grain amounts to 54 per cent of the yearly food and
-forms a considerable percentage in each month; oats are the favorite and
-were the sole contents of 14 stomachs, and wheat of 2, but no stomach
-was completely filled with any other grain. Weed seeds, eaten in every
-month to the extent of 9 per cent of the food, were found in rather small
-quantities and irregularly, and appear to have been merely a makeshift.
-
-Stomachs of nestlings, varying in age from 24 hours to some that were
-nearly fledged, were found to contain 89 per cent animal to 11 per cent
-vegetable matter. The largest items in the former were caterpillars,
-grasshoppers, and spiders. In the latter the largest items were fruit,
-probably cherries; grain, mostly oats; and rubbish.
-
-
-
-
-BALTIMORE ORIOLE.
-
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Baltimore oriole. Length, about 7½ Inches.]
-
-Brilliancy of plumage, sweetness of song, and food habits to which no
-exception can be taken are some of the striking characteristics of the
-Baltimore oriole[37] (fig. 12). In summer it is found throughout the
-northern half of the United States east of the Great Plains. Its nest
-commands hardly less admiration than the beauty of its plumage or the
-excellence of its song. Hanging from the tip of the outermost bough of
-a stately elm, it is almost inaccessible to depredators and so strongly
-fastened as to bid defiance to the elements.
-
-[37] _Icterus galbula_.
-
-Observation both in the field and laboratory shows that caterpillars
-constitute the largest item of the fare of the oriole. In 204 stomachs
-they formed 34 per cent of the food, and they are eaten in varying
-quantities during all the months in which the bird remains in this
-country. The fewest are eaten in July, when a little fruit also is taken.
-The other insects consist of beetles, bugs, ants, wasps, grasshoppers,
-and some spiders. The beetles are principally click beetles, the larvæ of
-which are among the most destructive insects known; and the bugs include
-plant and bark lice, both very harmful, but so small and obscure as to
-be passed over unnoticed by most birds. Ants are eaten mostly in spring,
-grasshoppers in July and August, and wasps and spiders with considerable
-regularity throughout the season.
-
-During the stay of the oriole in the United States, vegetable matter
-amounts to only a little more than 16 per cent of its food, so that the
-possibility of its doing much damage to crops is very limited. The bird
-is accused of eating peas to a considerable extent, but remains of such
-were found in only two cases. One writer says that it damages grapes, but
-none were found in the stomachs.
-
-
-
-
-BULLOCK ORIOLE.
-
-
-The Bullock oriole[38] is practically a counterpart of the Baltimore
-oriole, taking the place of that species west of the Plains and
-throughout the Pacific coast region. It does not essentially differ in
-its habits of nesting or in its food from its eastern relative, but it
-is less beautiful in plumage. The examination of 162 stomachs shows
-that 79 per cent of its food consists of insects, with a few spiders, a
-lizard, a mollusk shell, and eggshells. Beetles amounted to 35 per cent,
-and all except a few ladybugs were harmful species. Ants were found in
-19 stomachs, and in one there was nothing else. Bees, wasps, etc., were
-in 56 stomachs, and entirely filled 2 of them. Including the ants, they
-amount to nearly 15 per cent of the food of the season.
-
-[38] _Icterus bullocki_.
-
-One of the most interesting articles of food in the oriole's dietary was
-the black olive scale, found in 45 stomachs, and amounting to 5 per cent
-of the food. In several cases these scales formed 80 per cent or more of
-the contents, and in one, 30 individual scales could be counted. They
-were evidently a standard article of diet, and were eaten regularly in
-every month of the oriole's stay except April. Hemipterous insects other
-than scales, eaten quite regularly, make up a little more than 5 per cent
-of the food. They were mostly stinkbugs, leaf hoppers, and tree hoppers.
-Plant lice were found in one stomach.
-
-Moths, pupæ, and caterpillars compose the largest item of the oriole's
-animal food; the average consumption during its summer stay Is a little
-more than 41 per cent. Of these, perhaps the most interesting were the
-pupæ and larvæ of the codling moth. These were found in 23 stomachs,
-showing that they are not an unusual article of diet. No less than 14 of
-the pupal cases were found in one stomach, and as they are very fragile
-many others may have been present, but broken beyond recognition.
-
-Grasshoppers probably do not come much in the oriole's way. They were
-eaten, however; to the extent of a little more than 3 per cent. But in
-spite of the fact that grasshoppers are eaten so sparingly, 2 stomachs,
-both taken in June, contained nothing else, and another contained 97 per
-cent of them.
-
-Various insects and spiders, with a few other items, make up the rest of
-the animal food, a little more than 5 per cent. Spiders are not important
-in the oriole's food, but are probably eaten whenever found. They were
-identified in 44 stomachs, but in small numbers. The scales of a lizard
-were found in one stomach and the shell of a snail in another.
-
-The vegetable contingent of the oriole's food is mostly fruit, especially
-in June and July, when it takes kindly to cherries and apricots, and
-sometimes eats more than the fruit grower considers a fair share.
-However, no great complaint is made against the bird, and it is probable
-that as a rule it does not do serious harm. With such a good record as an
-insect eater it can well be spared a few cherries.
-
-
-
-
-THE MEADOWLARKS.
-
-
-The eastern meadowlark[39] (fig. 13) is a common and well-known bird
-occurring from the Atlantic coast to the Great Plains, where it gives
-way to the closely related western species,[40] which extends thence
-westward to the Pacific. It winters from our southern border as far north
-as the District of Columbia, southern Illinois, and occasionally Iowa.
-The western, form winters somewhat farther north. Although it is a bird
-of the plains, and finds its most congenial haunts in the prairies of the
-West, it is at home wherever there is level or undulating land covered
-with grass or weeds, with plenty of water at hand.
-
-[39] _Sturnella magna_.
-
-[40] _Sturnella neglecta_.
-
-In the 1,514 stomachs examined, animal food (practically all insects)
-constituted 74 per cent of the contents and vegetable matter 26 per cent.
-As would naturally be supposed, the insects were ground species, as
-beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, with a few flies, wasps,
-and spiders. A number of the stomachs were collected when the ground
-was covered with snow, but even these contained a large percentage of
-insects, showing the bird's skill in finding proper food under adverse
-circumstances.
-
-Of the various insects eaten, crickets and grasshoppers are the most
-important, constituting 26 per cent of the food of the year and 72 per
-cent of the food in August. It is scarcely necessary to mention the
-beneficial effect of a number of these birds on a field of grass in the
-height of the grasshopper season. Of the 1,514 stomachs collected at
-all seasons of the year, 778, or more than half, contained remains of
-grasshoppers, and one was filled with fragments of 37 of these insects.
-This seems to show conclusively that grasshoppers are preferred, and
-are eaten whenever they can be found. Especially notable is the great
-number taken in August, the month when grasshoppers reach their maximum
-abundance; stomach examination shows that large numbers of birds resort
-at this time to this diet, no matter what may be the food during the rest
-of the year.
-
-Next to grasshoppers, beetles make up the most important item of the
-meadowlark's food, amounting to 25 per cent, about one-half of which are
-predacious ground beetles. The others are all harmful species.
-
-Forty-two individuals of different kinds of May beetles were found in
-the stomachs of meadowlarks, and there were probably many more which
-were past recognition. To this form and several closely allied ones
-belong the numerous white grubs, which are among the worst enemies to
-many cultivated crops, notably grasses and grains, and to a less extent
-strawberries and garden vegetables. In the larval stage they eat the
-roots of these plants, and being large, one individual may destroy
-several plants. In the adult stage they feed upon the foliage of trees
-and other plants, and in this way add to the damage which they began in
-the earlier form. As these enemies of husbandry are not easily destroyed
-by man, it is obviously wise to encourage their natural foes.
-
-Among the weevils found in the stomachs the most important economically
-are the cotton-boll weevil and the recently introduced alfalfa weevil
-of Utah. Several hundred meadowlarks were taken in the cotton-growing
-region, and the boll weevil was found in 25 stomachs of the eastern
-meadowlark and in 16 of the western species. Of the former, one stomach
-contained 27 individuals. Of 25 stomachs of western meadowlarks taken in
-alfalfa fields of Utah, 15 contained the alfalfa weevil. In one stomach
-23 adults were found, in another 32 adults and 70 larvæ, still another
-had 10 adults and 40 larvæ, and a fourth had 4 adults and 100 larvæ.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Meadowlark. Length, about 10 inches.]
-
-Caterpillars form a very constant element of the food, and in May
-constitute over 24 per cent of the whole. May is the month when the
-dreaded cutworm begins Its deadly career, and then the lark does some of
-its best work. Most of these caterpillars are ground feeders, and are
-overlooked by birds which habitually frequent trees, but the meadowlark
-finds and devours them by thousands. The remainder of the insect food is
-made up of ants, wasps, and spiders, with some bugs, including chinch
-bugs, and a few scales.
-
-The vegetable food consists of grain and weed and other hard seeds. Grain
-in general amounts to 11 per cent and weed and other seeds to 7 per cent.
-Grain, principally corn, is eaten mostly in winter and early spring
-and consists, therefore, of waste kernels; only a trifle is consumed
-in summer and autumn, when it is most plentiful. No trace of sprouting
-grain was discovered. Glover seed was found in only six stomachs, and but
-little in each. Seeds of weeds, principally ragweed, barnyard grass, and
-smartweed, are eaten from November to April, inclusive, but during the
-rest of the year are replaced by insects.
-
-Briefly stated, more than half of the meadowlark's food consists of
-harmful insects; its vegetable food is composed either of noxious weeds
-or waste grain; and the remainder is made up of useful beetles or
-neutral insects and spiders. A strong point in the bird's favor is that,
-although naturally an insect eater, it is able to subsist on vegetable
-food, and consequently is not forced to migrate in cold weather farther
-than is necessary to find ground free from snow.
-
-THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS.
-
-The red-winged or swamp blackbird[41] in its various forms (fig. 14) is
-found all over the United States and the region immediately to the north.
-While common in most of its range, its distribution is more or less
-local, mainly on account of its partiality for marshes. It builds its
-nest over or near standing water, in tall grass, rushes, or bushes. Owing
-to this peculiarity the bird may be absent from large tracts of country
-which afford no swamps or marshes suitable for nesting. It usually breeds
-in large colonies, though single families, consisting of a male and
-several females, may sometimes be found in a small slough, where each
-female builds her nest and rears her own little brood. While her liege
-lord displays his brilliant colors and struts in the sunshine. In the
-upper Mississippi Valley the species finds most favorable conditions, for
-the countless prairie sloughs and the margins of the numerous shallow
-lakes afford nesting sites for thousands of red-wings; and here are bred
-the immense flocks which sometimes do so much damage to the grain fields
-of the West. After the breeding season the birds congregate preparatory
-to migration, and remain thus associated throughout the winter.
-
-[41] _Agelaius phœniceus_.
-
-Three species and several subspecies of red-wings are recognized,[42]
-but practically no difference exists in the habits of these forms either
-in nesting or feeding, except such as may result from local conditions.
-Most of the forms are found on the Pacific side of the continent, and
-may be considered as included in the following statements as to food and
-economic status.
-
-[42] Agelaius phœniceus (8 forms), Agelaius gubernator, and Agelaius
-tricolor.
-
-Many complaints have been made against the red-wing, and several States
-have at times placed a bounty upon its head. It is said to cause great
-damage to grain in the West, especially in the upper Mississippi Valley,
-but few complaints come from the northeastern section, where the bird is
-much less abundant than in the West and South.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Red-winged blackbird. Length, about 9½
-Inches.]
-
-Examination of 1,083 stomachs showed that vegetable matter forms 74 per
-cent of the food, while animal matter, mainly Insects, forms but 26 per
-cent A little more than 10 per cent consists of beetles, mostly harmful
-species. Weevils, or snout beetles, amount to 4 per cent of the year's
-food, but in June reach 25 per cent. As weevils are among the most
-harmful insects known, their destruction should condone some, at least,
-of the sins of which the bird is accused. Grasshoppers constitute nearly
-5 per cent of the food, while the rest of the animal matter is made up
-of various insects, a few snails, and crustaceans. The few dragon flies
-found were probably picked up dead, for they are too active to be taken
-alive, unless by a bird of the flycatcher family. So far as the insect
-food as a whole is concerned, the red-wing may be considered entirely
-beneficial.
-
-The interest in the vegetable food of this bird centers around grain.
-Only three kinds, corn, wheat, and oats, were found in the stomachs
-in appreciable quantities. They aggregate but little more than 13
-per cent of the whole food, oats forming nearly half of this amount.
-Field investigation has shown, however, that, when local conditions
-are favorable, large flocks of red-wings may do considerable damage.
-Conspicuous among such cases are the losses suffered by farmers to sweet
-corn in some of the northeastern States and to milo in the South and
-West. In the rather limited grain-raising area of the Imperial Valley
-of California the annual damage to milo alone by enormous flocks of
-red-wings and yellow-headed blackbirds has been estimated to be fully
-$50,000. The most important item of the bird's food, however, is weed
-seed, which forms practically all of its food in winter and about 57
-per cent of the fare of the whole year. The principal weed seeds eaten
-are those of ragweed, barnyard grass, and smartweed. That these seeds
-are preferred is shown by the fact that the birds begin to eat them in
-August, when grain is still readily obtainable, and continue feeding on
-them even after insects become plentiful in April. The red-wing eats very
-little fruit and does practically no harm to garden or orchard. It is
-apparent that where moderately abundant, the red-wing does more good than
-harm, but in sections where it becomes excessively abundant a reduction
-in its numbers is justifiable.
-
-
-
-
-BOBOLINK.
-
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Bobolink, ricebird, or reed bird. Length, about
-7 inches.]
-
-The bobolink, ricebird, or reedbird[43] (fig. 15) is a common summer
-resident of the United States, north of about latitude 40°, and from
-New England westward to the Great Plains, wintering beyond our southern
-border. In New England there are few birds about which so much romance
-clusters as this rollicking songster, naturally associated with sunny
-June meadows; but in the South there are none on whose head so many
-maledictions have been heaped on account of its fondness for rice. During
-its sojourn in the Northern States it feeds mainly upon insects and seeds
-of useless plants; but while rearing its young, insects constitute its
-chief food, and almost the exclusive diet of its brood. After the young
-are able to fly, the whole family gathers into a small flock and begins
-to live almost entirely upon vegetable food. This consists for the most
-part of weed seeds, since In the North these birds do not appear to
-attack grain to any great extent. They eat a few oats, but their stomachs
-do not reveal a great quantity of this or any other grain. As the season
-advances they gather into larger flocks and move southward, until by the
-end of August nearly all have left their breeding grounds. On their way
-they frequent the reedy marshes about the mouths of rivers and on the
-inland waters of the coast region and subsist largely upon wild rice. In
-the Middle States, during their southward migration, they are commonly
-known as reedbirds, and, becoming very fat, are treated as game.
-
-[43] _Dolichonyx oryzivorus_.
-
-Formerly, when the low marshy shores of the Carolinas and some of the
-more southern States were devoted to rice culture the bobolinks made
-great havoc both upon the sprouting rice in spring and upon the ripening
-grain on their return migration in the fall. While the damage is not
-so great as when this region was the center of rice production, still
-it amounts to many thousands of dollars annually. As a remedy, an open
-season on ricebirds was provided in the Coast States from New Jersey to
-Florida.
-
-
-
-
-CROW.
-
-
-In one or another of its geographic races the common crow[44] (fig. 16)
-breeds in great numbers throughout the States east of the Plains and
-from the Gulf well up into Canada, while in less abundance it is found
-in California and in the Northwestern States. During the colder months a
-southern migratory movement brings most of these birds within the borders
-of the United States, and at about the latitude of Philadelphia and
-southern Illinois we find them congregating nightly in roosts. Farmers
-dwelling in the vicinity of such roosts frequently suffer losses to
-shocked corn.
-
-[44] _Corvus brachyrhynchos_.
-
-In fact, none of our native birds so much concerns the average farmer of
-the Eastern States as the common crow. Many of our present criticisms
-of this bird, as its pulling sprouting corn, feeding on ripening ears,
-damaging fruits of various kinds, destroying poultry and wild birds,
-and disseminating diseases of live-stock, were common complaints in the
-days of the early colonists. Many of the virtues of the crow, now quite
-generally recognized, also have been matters of record for many years. In
-recent times, however, scientific study of these problems, including the
-examination of the stomachs of hundreds of crows secured in every month
-of the year and under a variety of conditions, has enabled us to render a
-much fairer verdict than was formerly possible.
-
-The crow is practically omnivorous. During spring and early summer any
-form of insect life seems to make a desirable item in its diet, and in
-winter when hard pressed nothing in the animal or vegetable kingdoms
-which contains a morsel of nutriment is overlooked.
-
-The insect food of the crow, which comprises about a fifth of its yearly
-sustenance, does much to atone for its misdemeanors. Grasshoppers,
-May beetles and their larvæ (white grubs), caterpillars, weevils, and
-wireworms stand out prominently. In 1,340 stomachs of adults examined
-these highly Injurious forms comprised over 80 per cent of the insect
-food. Grasshoppers are naturally taken in greatest abundance late in the
-season. September being the month of largest consumption, when they form
-about a fifth of the total food. May beetles and white grubs are eaten
-in every month, but occur most prominently in May. In June caterpillars
-are a favorite food, and weevils of various kinds are taken in varying
-quantities throughout summer and fall. About half of the remaining
-20 per cent of insect food is composed of beneficial ground beetles,
-ladybirds, predacious bugs, and parasitic wasps, and related forms, the
-rest consisting of neutral or injurious forms. Numerous instances are on
-record where fields badly infested with white grubs or grasshoppers have
-been favorite resorts of crows, whose voracity has resulted in a material
-suppression of the pest. When the amount of food required to sustain the
-individual crow is considered, the work of these birds appears all the
-more important Single stomachs containing upward of 50 grasshoppers are
-not uncommon. Thus in its choice of insect food the crow is rendering an
-important service to the farmer.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Crow. Length, about 19 inches.]
-
-In the other animal food of the crow are several items of the utmost
-economic importance. Spiders are taken in considerable numbers in May and
-June, but the yearly total is a little over 1 per cent of the food. In
-early spring crawfish are eagerly sought, and other aquatic food, as fish
-and mollusks, lend variety to the crow's bill of fare the year round.
-In the consumption of toads, salamanders, frogs, and some snakes, which
-together compose a little over 2 per cent of the yearly food, the crow is
-doubtless doing harm. Small rodents occurred in the stomachs collected
-nearly every month, but it Is often difficult to determine whether small
-mammals found in birds' stomachs were taken alive or found dead.
-
-From its carrion-eating habits the crow has been unfairly criticized as
-a disseminator of live-stock diseases. While this may be to some extent
-just, the fact that there are many other important carriers which lie
-largely beyond our control, shows that we must seek final relief only
-through the strictest methods of sanitation.
-
-The nest-robbing habit of the crow, long a serious criticism, is verified
-by stomach analysis. Of the 1,103 crows examined, 47 had fed on wild
-birds or their eggs, and the eggs of domestic fowls were found somewhat
-more frequently. The crow's habit of rummaging about garbage piles may
-explain much of this latter material.
-
-Of the vegetable food, corn, which is eaten every month, is the most
-important item and forms about 38 per cent of the diet. Much of this,
-however, must be considered waste, since over 60 per cent of it is
-consumed from the first of November to the end of March. During the
-periods when corn is sprouting and when in the "roasting-ear" stage the
-crow is eating this grain at a rate considerably less than the yearly
-average, and the months of smallest consumption are July and August. At
-times, however, the damage to corn becomes a serious problem, and were
-it not possible to make use of such deterrents as coal tar upon seed
-corn there would be little friendship for the crow in some sections of
-the East. The "pulling" of corn is a trait most prevalent in small-field
-areas. Wheat and oats suffer similar damage at times, especially in the
-Northwestern States, where these grains predominate. About the only
-safeguard to ripening grain is the constant use of powder and shot or the
-scarecrow.
-
-Various kinds of cultivated fruits are also eaten, and local damage
-to such crops as apples, melons, peas, beans, peanuts, and almonds is
-occasionally reported. In long, rigorous winters, the crow, like other
-birds, resorts to the fruit of numerous wild plants, as dogwood, sour
-gum, hackberry, smilax, and the several species of sumac and poison ivy.
-
-Damage to the eggs of poultry may be reduced to a minimum by careful
-housing of lasting hens, and the farmer can protect his sprouting grain
-to a large extent by the use of tar-coated seed. It will be well also
-to keep the crow within reasonable numbers on game preserves and public
-parks where it is desired to encourage the nesting of smaller birds.
-While legal protection is not needed for so wary an individual as the
-crow, it seems well, where local conditions have not aggravated some
-particular shortcomings of the bird, to allow it to continue the good
-services gendered to man in the destruction of noxious insects.
-
-
-
-
-BLUE JAY.
-
-
-The blue jay[45] (fig. 17) is a conspicuous member of our bird population
-east of the Plains, especially in autumn when his brilliant plumage
-contrasts vividly with the brown> foliage. Even in winter he stays with
-us, though at this time he is less common along our northern border. In
-spring and summer, while by no means uncommon, the blue jay is not so
-often noticed, as the retiring disposition which he assumes during the
-breeding season assists in protecting him from enemies. This also allows
-him to carry on with considerable impunity that inglorious practice of
-nest robbing of which, in a measure, he has been rightfully accused.
-
-[45] _Cyanocitta cristata_.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Blue Jay. Length, about 11½ inches.]
-
-Examination of 530 stomachs collected at all times of the year in 30
-of our Eastern States and Canada shows that insects comprise about 22
-per cent of the yearly sustenance. About three-fourths of these are
-injurious, the remainder being neutral or beneficial. Of the injurious
-insects, grasshoppers form the largest portion; in August nearly a fifth
-of the food. Caterpillars are conspicuous in July and August and at this
-time average about a tenth of the stomach contents. Both laboratory
-investigations and field observations have established the fact that in
-winter the eggs of the tent caterpillar and the hibernating larvæ of the
-brown-tail moth in New England are eagerly sought Scarabæid beetles form
-about 4 per cent of the yearly food, and click beetles and wire-worms
-about 1 per cent. Of the beneficial forms, ground beetles (3 per cent)
-and hymenopterous insects, part of which are parasitic (2.5 per cent),
-are taken most frequently. A few other invertebrates, as spiders,
-millipedes, mollusks, and crustaceans, also are eaten throughout the year.
-
-In the consideration of the vertebrate food of the blue jay we are
-confronted with the problem of the destruction of wild birds and their
-eggs. Special search was made for every possible trace of such material
-in the stomachs, and in 6 of the 530 were found the remains of wild birds
-or their eggs. In February two jays had killed a small bird apiece; in
-May one had robbed a nest of eggs; in June two had taken a small bird and
-a clutch of eggs, respectively; and in August another had robbed a nest
-As this trait of the jay appears to be most pronounced during its own
-breeding season, it is quite possible for many birds which have suffered
-from its boldness early in the season to raise another brood unmolested.
-Thirty-nine of the 530 jays examined had fed on hen's eggs. Much of this
-food, however, was picked up about rubbish heaps, to which the jay, like
-other members of the crow family, is partial. While the result of stomach
-analysis would appear to belittle this fault of the blue jay, it is
-doubtless quite characteristic of the bird under favorable conditions.
-
-Complaint that the jay is the source of considerable damage to corn in
-the fall has been verified to a certain degree by stomach examination.
-This grain is taken in every month of the year, but in greater
-quantities during winter and early spring, when much of it is necessarily
-waste, and it forms about 18 per cent of the yearly food. Cultivated
-fruits of various kinds are eaten from June to the end of the year, and
-the 15 per cent taken in July apparently justifies complaints against
-the bird on this score. The favorite vegetable food of the blue jay is
-mast of various kinds, acorns predominating, but beechnuts, chestnuts,
-chinquaquins, and hazelnuts also are relished. This food is important in
-every month but July and August, the yearly average being over 43 per
-cent, and from October to March it constitutes about two-thirds of the
-diet. Occasionally harm is done by feeding also on cultivated nuts, as
-pecans. Wild fruits are eaten during the summer and fall and constitute
-about 7 per cent of the yearly sustenance.
-
-The blue jay probably renders its best services to man in destroying
-grasshoppers late in the season and in feeding on hibernating insects and
-their eggs, as it does in the case of the tent caterpillar and brown-tail
-moth. Such forest insects as buprestid beetles and weevils of various
-kinds also fall as its prey.
-
-The blue jay's vegetable food, with the exception of some cultivated
-fruit and corn in the fall, is largely neutral. The severest criticism
-against the species is the destruction of other birds and their eggs.
-Where we wish to attract birds in large numbers about our dooryards, in
-our parks, and in game preserves, it will be well not to allow the jays
-to become too abundant.
-
-
-
-
-PACIFIC COAST JAYS.
-
-
-In California and adjacent States two species of jays are much in
-evidence under several more or less well-marked forms.
-
-The Steller jay[46] much resembles the eastern bird, but it is more shy
-and retiring and seldom visits the orchard or vicinity of the ranch
-buildings. Stomach examination shows that its food does not radically
-differ from that of the eastern blue jay. As is the case with that bird,
-a very considerable part of the food consists of mast, together with
-a little fruit and some insects. The insects are largely wasps, with
-some beetles and grasshoppers. This jay also eats some grain, which is
-probably waste or volunteer. No complaints, so far as known, are made
-against this bird. Until it shall become less wary it is not likely to
-trespass to a serious extent upon the farmer's preserve.
-
-[46] _Cyanocitta stelleri_.
-
-The California jay,[47] although of a different genus, more nearly
-resembles its eastern relative in food habits and actions. It freely
-visits the stockyards near ranch buildings, and orchards and gardens. As
-a fruit stealer it is notorious. One instance is recorded where seven
-jays were shot from a prune tree, one after the other, the dead bodies
-being left under the tree until all were killed. So eager were the birds
-to get the fruit that the report of the gun and the sight of their dead
-did not deter them from coming to the tree. In orchards in canyons or on
-hillsides adjacent to chaparral or other cover great mischief is done by
-this bird. In one such case an orchard was under observation at a time
-when the prune crop was ripening, and jays in a continuous stream were
-seen to come down a small ravine to the orchard, prey upon the fruit, and
-return.
-
-[47] _Aphelocoma californica_.
-
-Fruit stealing, however, is only one of the sins of the California jay.
-That it robs hens' nests is universal testimony. A case is reported of a
-hen having a nest under a clump of bushes; every day a jay came to a tree
-a few rods away, and when it heard the cackle of the hen announcing a new
-egg it flew at once to the nest. At the same time the mistress of the
-house hastened to the spot to secure the prize, but in most cases the jay
-won the race. This is only one of many similar cases recounted. The jays
-have learned just what the cackle of the hen means. Another case more
-serious is that related by a man engaged in raising white leghorn fowls
-on a ranch several miles up a canyon. He stated that when the chicks were
-very young the jays attacked and killed them by a few blows of the beak
-and then pecked open the skull and ate out the brains. In spite of all
-efforts to protect the chicks and kill the jays the losses in this way
-were serious.
-
-Examination of the stomachs of 326 California jays shows that 27 per cent
-of the contents for the year consists of animal matter and 73 per cent
-of vegetable. Although the great bulk of the animal food is made up of
-insects, the remains of eggshells and birds' bones appear much too often.
-The insect food is fairly well distributed among the more common orders,
-but grasshoppers are slightly the most numerous and constitute 4.5 per
-cent of the year's food. In July, August, and September, however, the
-amount is 14, 18, and 19 per cent, respectively. Four per cent of the
-food consists of wasps, bees, etc., but in the three months named they
-constitute 15, 7, and 9 per cent, respectively. A worker honeybee found
-in each of two stomachs is rather surprising, for it is unusual to find
-a bird like the jay eating these active and elusive insects, which enter
-into the diet of the flycatchers. The remainder of the insect food is
-pretty evenly distributed among beetles, bugs, flies, and caterpillars.
-Eggshells were found in 21 stomachs and birds' bones in 5. Six stomachs
-contained the bones of mammals and two those of a lizard. No bird has a
-worse reputation for nest robbing than has the eastern jay, and yet of
-530 stomachs of the eastern species only 6 contained eggshells or the
-bones of birds. This comparison serves to show what a marauder and nest
-thief the California jay really is.
-
-In its vegetable diet this bird much resembles its eastern relative,
-the most remarkable difference being in the matter of fruit eating.
-With greater opportunities the California bird has developed a greater
-appetite for fruit and indulges it to the fullest extent. Remains of
-fruit were found in 220 of the 326 stomachs. The percentage for the year
-is only 16, but for the four months of June, July, August, and September
-it is 44, 33, 53, and 25, respectively. Cherries, apricots, and prunes
-are the favorites among cultivated fruits, and elderberries are relished
-to some extent. Grain, which was found in 48 stomachs, amounts to 6 per
-cent of the food of the year. Practically all of it was taken in the
-four months above mentioned, but it is not probable that much damage
-is done by the jay in this respect. The major portion of the grain was
-oats. What was not wild was probably simply scattered grain gleaned
-after the harvest. Mast is eaten by the California jay from September
-to March, inclusive, and constitutes during most of that period one of
-the principal elements of its food. In this respect the bird shows a
-remarkable similarity to the eastern species. A few weed seeds and other
-miscellaneous items make up the balance of the vegetable food.
-
-In summing up from an economic point of view the character of the food of
-the California jay, it must be conceded that it is not all that could be
-wished. Its taste for birds' eggs and fruit is entirely too pronounced,
-and at present the species is superabundant in California. While the
-natural food supply of the bird has been lessened by bringing the woods
-and brushy canyons under cultivation, the same areas have been planted to
-fruit, and naturally the jay takes the fruit as an acceptable substitute.
-A considerable reduction of the bird's numbers would appear to be the
-only effective remedy.
-
-
-
-
-THE PHÅ’BES.
-
-
-Among the early spring arrivals to their northern homes none is more
-welcome than the phœbe (fig. 18). The common phœbe[48] breeds
-throughout the United States east of the Great Plains, and winters from
-the South Atlantic and Gulf States southward. Its western relative, the
-black phœbe,[49] is found from Texas west to the Pacific coast, which
-it occupies as far north as Washington, replacing through most of this
-region the common or eastern form.
-
-[48] _Sayornis phœbe_.
-
-[49] _Sayornis Nigricans_.
-
-Though naturally building its nest under an overhanging cliff of rock
-or earth, or in the mouth of a cave, the preference of the eastern
-species for the vicinity of farm buildings is so marked that in the more
-thickly settled parts of the country the bird is seldom seen at any
-great distance from a farmhouse, except where a bridge spanning a stream
-affords a secure spot for a nest. Its confiding disposition renders it a
-great favorite, and consequently it is seldom disturbed.
-
-The phœbe subsists almost exclusively upon insects, most of which are
-caught upon the wing. An examination of 370 stomachs showed that over 89
-per cent of the year's food consists of insects and spiders, while wild
-fruit constitutes the remainder. The insects belong chiefly to noxious
-species, and include many click beetles. May beetles, and weevils.
-Other beetles, belonging to 21 families that were identified, make up
-10.65 per cent. They appear to be eaten very regularly in every month,
-but the most are taken in spring and early summer. May is the month of
-maximum consumption, with 20.43 per cent. Beetles altogether amount to
-15.3 per cent, which places them second in rank of the items of animal
-food. The notorious cotton-boll weevil was found in six stomachs taken
-in the cotton fields of Texas and Louisiana, and five individuals of the
-strawberry weevil were taken from one collected in Texas. Many other
-beetles contained In the stomachs are equally harmful, but are not so
-widely known. Such are the corn leaf-beetle, which feeds upon corn; the
-12-spotted cucumber beetle, and the striped cucumber beetle, both of
-which seriously injure and sometimes destroy cucumber and squash vines;
-and the locust leaf miner, which is sometimes so numerous that all the
-locust trees over large areas are blasted as by fire.
-
-In the phœbe's diet hymenopterous insects stand at the head, as
-is the case with most of the flycatchers. They are eaten with great
-regularity and are the largest item in nearly every month. A few are
-useful parasitic species, but these are offset by a number of sawfly
-larvæ, which are very harmful insects. Ants were found in 24 stomachs.
-No honeybees were identified. In their season grasshoppers are much
-relished, while wasps of various forms, many flies of species that annoy
-cattle, and a few bugs and spiders are also eaten regularly. It is
-evident that a pair of phœbes must materially reduce the number of
-insects near a garden or field, as the birds often, if not always, raise
-two broods a year, and each brood numbers from four to six young.
-
-There is hardly a more useful species about the farm than the phœbe,
-and it should receive every encouragement. To furnish nesting boxes is
-helpful, but not necessary, as it usually prefers a more open situation,
-like a shed or a nook under the eaves, but it should be protected from
-cats and other marauders.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Phœbe. Length, about 6½ inches.]
-
-The black phœbe has the same habits as its eastern relative, both as
-to selection of food and nesting sites, preferring for the latter purpose
-some structure of man, as a shed or, better still, a bridge over a stream
-of water, and the preference of the black phœbe for the vicinity of
-water is very pronounced. One may always be found at a stream' or pool
-and often at a watering trough by the roadside.
-
-Careful study of the habits of the bird shows that it obtains a large
-portion of Its food about wet places. While camping beside a stream in
-California the writer took some pains to observe the habits of the black
-phœbe. The nesting season was over, and the birds had nothing to do
-but eat. This they appeared to be doing all the time. When first observed
-in the morning, at the first glimmer of daylight, a phœbe was always
-found flitting from rock to rock, although it was so dusky that the bird
-could hardly be seen. This activity was kept up all day. Even in the
-evening, when it was so dark that notes were written by the aid of the
-camp fire, the phœbe was still engaged in its work of collecting,
-though it was difficult to understand how it could catch insects when
-there was scarcely light enough to see the bird. Exploration of the
-stream showed that every portion of it was patrolled by a phœbe, that
-each one apparently did not range over more than 12 or 13 rods of water,
-and that sometimes two or three were in close proximity.
-
-The number of insects destroyed in a year by the black phœbe is
-enormous. Fortunately, the examination of stomachs has supplemented
-observation in the field, and we are enabled to give precise details. Of
-the 333 stomachs examined, every one contained insects as the great bulk
-of the food. Only 15 contained any vegetable food at all, and in no case
-was it a considerable part of the contents of the stomach. The insects
-eaten were mostly wasps, bugs, and flies, but many beetles also were
-destroyed.
-
-Useful beetles belonging to three families amount to 2.8 per cent of the
-food. Other beetles of harmful or neutral species reach 10.5 per cent.
-Wasps, the largest item of the food, were found in 252 stomachs and
-were the whole contents of 15. The average for the year is 35 per cent.
-Parasitic species were noted, but they were very few. Ants were found in
-48 stomachs, and for a short time in midsummer they constitute a notable
-part of the food. Various wild bees and wasps make up the bulk of this
-item. No honeybees were found.
-
-Bugs in various forms constitute 10.56 per cent and are eaten in every
-month but May. Stinkbugs appear to be the favorites, as they were
-contained in 10 stomachs. Plant lice were found in one stomach. Flies,
-forming the second largest item, were found in 97 stomachs and completely
-filled 3. They constitute the most regular article in the black
-phœbe's diet. The maximum consumption occurs in April, 64.3 per cent.
-The black phœbe well merits its title of flycatcher.
-
-Moths and caterpillars amount to 8.2 per cent of the food. They were
-found in 72 stomachs, of which 51 contained the adult moths and 28 the
-larvæ or caterpillars. One stomach was entirely filled with adults. This
-is one of the few birds studied by the writer that eats more moths than
-caterpillars, for as a rule the caterpillars are largely in excess.
-Flycatchers, taking their food upon the wing, would naturally prove
-exceptions to the rule. Crickets are evidently not a favorite food of the
-black phœbe, as they amount to only 2.45 per cent. They were found in
-39 stomachs, but usually the amount in each was small, though one stomach
-was entirely filled with them. Grasshoppers did not appear. Dragon flies
-were eaten to some extent, and these illustrate the fondness of the
-species for the neighborhood of water.
-
-The vegetable matter eaten consisted chiefly of small wild fruits of no
-economic importance.
-
-Another phœbe inhabiting the Western States and breeding as far north
-as Alaska is the Say phœbe.[50] Investigation of its food was based
-on the examination of 86 stomachs, and while none were available for the
-months when insects are most numerous, the bird proved to be one of the
-most exclusively insectivorous of the family. That it takes a few useful
-insects can not be denied, but these are far outnumbered by the harmful
-ones it destroys, and the balance is clearly in favor of the bird. Its
-vegetable food amounts to only 2 per cent and is made up of a little wild
-fruit, seeds, and rubbish.
-
-[50] _Sayornis sayus_.
-
-
-
-THE KINGBIRDS.
-
-
-The well-known eastern kingbird[51] (fig. 19) is essentially a lover of
-the orchard, though groves and the edge of forests were probably its
-original habitat. It breeds in the States east of the Rocky Mountains,
-and less commonly in the Great Basin and on the Pacific coast. Its
-hostility to hawks and crows is proverbial, and for this reason a family
-of kingbirds is a desirable adjunct to a poultry yard. On one occasion
-in the knowledge of the writer a hawk which attacked a brood of young
-turkeys was pounced upon and so severely buffeted by a pair of kingbirds
-whose nest was near by that the would-be robber was glad to escape
-without his prey. Song birds that nest near the kingbird are similarly
-protected.
-
-[51] _Tyrannus tyrannus_.
-
-The kingbird is largely insectivorous. It is a true flycatcher and takes
-on the wing a large part of its food. It does not, however, confine
-itself to this method of hunting, but picks up some insects from trees
-and weeds, and even descends to the ground in search of myriapods
-or thousand legs. The chief complaint against the species by both
-professional bee keepers and others has been that it preys largely upon
-honeybees. One bee raiser in Iowa, suspecting the kingbirds of feeding
-upon his bees, shot a number near his hives; but when the stomachs of the
-birds were examined by an expert entomologist, not a trace of honeybees
-could be found.
-
-An examination of 665 stomachs collected in various parts of the
-country, was made by the Biological Survey, but only 22 were found to
-contain remains of honeybees. In these 22 stomachs there were in all 61
-honeybees, of which 51 were drones, 8 were certainly workers, and the
-remaining 2 were too badly broken to be further identified.
-
-The insects that constitute the great bulk of the food of the bird
-are noxious species, largely beetles--May beetles, click beetles (the
-larvæ of which are known as wire-worms), weevils, which prey upon
-fruit and grain, and a host of others. Wasps, wild bees, and ants are
-conspicuous elements of the food, far outnumbering the hive bees.
-During summer many grasshoppers and crickets, as well as leaf hoppers
-and other bugs, also are eaten. In the stomachs examined were a number
-of robber files--insects which prey largely upon other insects,
-including honeybees, and which are known to commit in this way extensive
-depredations. It is thus evident that the kingbird by destroying these
-flies actually does good work for the apiarist. The 26 robber flies found
-in the stomachs may be considered more than an equivalent for the 8
-worker honeybees already mentioned. A few caterpillars are eaten, mostly
-belonging to the group commonly known as cutworms, all the species of
-which are harmful.
-
-About 11 per cent of the food consists of small native fruits, comprising
-some 30 common species of the roadsides and thickets, as dogwood berries,
-elderberries, and wild grapes. The kingbird is not reported as eating
-cultivated fruit to an injurious extent, and it is very doubtful if this
-is ever the case.
-
-In the Western States the Arkansas kingbird[52] is not so domestic in
-its habits as its eastern relative, preferring to live among scattering
-oaks on lonely hillsides, rather than in orchards about ranch buildings.
-The work it does, however, in the destruction of noxious insects fully
-equals that of any member of its family. Like other flycatchers, it
-subsists mostly upon insects taken in mid-air, though it eats a number
-of grasshoppers, probably taken from the ground. The bulk of its food
-consists of beetles, bugs, wasps, and wild bees. Like its eastern
-representative, it has been accused of feeding to an injurious extent
-upon honeybees. In an examination of 62 stomachs of this species,
-great care was taken to identify every insect or fragment that had any
-resemblance to a honeybee; as a result, 30 honeybees were identified, of
-which 29 were males or drones and 1 a worker. These were contained in
-four stomachs, and were the sole contents of three; in the fourth they
-constituted 99 per cent of the food. It is evident that the bee-eating
-habit is only occasional and accidental, rather than habitual; and it is
-also evident that if this ratio of drones to workers were maintained, the
-bird would be of more benefit than harm to the apiary.
-
-[52] _Tyrannus verticalis_.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Kingbird. Length, about 8½ inches.]
-
-The Cassin kingbird[53] has a more southerly range than the Arkansas
-flycatcher. Examination of a number of stomachs shows that its food
-habits are similar to those of others of the group.
-
-[53] _Tyrannus vociferans_.
-
-Three points seem to be clearly established in regard to the food of
-the kingbirds--(1) that about 90 per cent consists of insects, mostly
-injurious species; (2) that the alleged habit of preying upon honeybees
-is much less prevalent than has been supposed, and probably does not
-result in any great damage; and (3) that the vegetable food consists
-almost entirely of wild fruits which have no economic value.
-
-All of the kingbirds are of the greatest importance to the farmer and
-fruit grower, as they destroy vast numbers of harmful insects, and do no
-appreciable damage to any product of cultivation.
-
-
-
-
-NIGHTHAWK.
-
-
-The nighthawk, or bull-bat,[54] breeds throughout most of the United
-States and Canada, and winters in South America. It is strictly
-insectivorous, and hence does no damage to crops. The only charge that
-can be made against the bird is that it destroys some useful insects, but
-these are greatly in the minority in its food.
-
-[54] _Chordeiles virginianus_.
-
-Nighthawks are so expert in flight that no insects can escape them. In
-their capacious mouths they sweep up everything from the largest moths
-and dragon flies to the tiniest ants and gnats, and in this way sometimes
-gather most remarkable collections of insects. Several stomachs have
-contained 50 or more different kinds, and the number of individuals ran
-into the thousands.
-
-Nearly a fourth of the birds' total food is composed of ants. These
-Insects are generally annoying and often very injurious, especially on
-account of their damage to stored products and because of their habit of
-fostering destructive plant lice. More than a fifth of the nighthawk's
-food consists of June bugs, dung beetles, and other beetles of the
-leaf-chafer family. These are the adults of white grubs, noted pests, and
-even as adults many members of the family are decidedly harmful.
-
-Numerous other injurious beetles, as click beetles, wood borers, and
-weevils, are relished. True bugs, moths, flies, grasshoppers, and
-crickets also are important elements of the food. Several species of
-mosquitoes, including the transmitter of malaria, are eaten. Other
-well-known pests consumed by the nighthawk are Colorado potato beetles,
-cucumber beetles, rice, clover-leaf, and cotton-boll weevils, billbugs,
-bark beetles, squash bugs, and moths of the cotton worm.
-
-Nighthawks are much less numerous than formerly, chiefly because of
-wanton shooting. They are given full legal protection almost everywhere,
-and citizens should see that the law is obeyed. The bird is far too
-useful and attractive to be persecuted.
-
-
-
-
-THE WOODPECKERS.
-
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Hairy woodpecker. Length, about 9 inches.]
-
-Five or six species of woodpeckers are familiarly known throughout the
-eastern United States, and In the West are replaced by others of similar
-habits. Several species remain in the Northern States through the entire
-year, while others are more or less migratory.
-
-Farmers are prone to look upon woodpeckers with suspicion. When the birds
-are seen scrambling over fruit trees and pecking holes in the bark, it
-is concluded that they must be doing harm. Careful observers, however,
-have noticed that, excepting a single species, these birds rarely leave
-any conspicuous mark on a healthy tree, except when it is affected by
-wood-boring larvæ, which are accurately located, dislodged, and devoured
-by the woodpecker.
-
-Two of the best-known woodpeckers, the hairy woodpecker[55] (fig.
-20) and the downy woodpecker,[56] including their races, range over
-the greater part of the United States. They differ chiefly in size,
-their colors being practically the same. The males, like those of
-many other woodpeckers, are distinguished by a scarlet patch on the
-head. An examination of many stomachs of these two species shows that
-from two-thirds to three-fourths of the food consists of insects,
-chiefly noxious kinds. Wood-boring beetles, both adults and larvæ, are
-conspicuous, and with them are associated many caterpillars, mostly
-species that burrow into trees. Next in importance are the ants that
-live in decaying wood, all of which are sought by woodpeckers and eaten
-in great quantities. Many ants are particularly harmful to timber, for
-if they find a small spot of decay in the vacant burrow of a wood borer,
-they enlarge the hole, and, as their colony is always on the increase,
-continue to eat away the wood until the whole trunk is honeycombed.
-Moreover, they are not accessible to birds generally, and could pursue
-their career of destruction unmolested were it not that the woodpeckers,
-with beaks and tongues especially fitted for such work, dig out and
-devour them. It is thus evident that woodpeckers are great conservators
-of forests. To them more than to any other agency we owe the preservation
-of timber from hordes of destructive insects.
-
-[55] _Dryobates villosus_.
-
-[56] _Dryobates pubecens_.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Flicker. Length, about 12½ inches.]
-
-One of the larger woodpeckers familiar to everyone is the flicker, or
-golden-winged woodpecker[57] (fig. 21), which is generally distributed
-throughout the United States from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky
-Mountains. There it is replaced by the red-shafted flicker,[58] which
-extends westward to the Pacific. The two species are as nearly identical
-in food habits as their respective environments will allow. The flickers,
-while genuine woodpeckers, differ somewhat in habits from the rest of
-the family, and are frequently seen searching for food upon the ground.
-Like the downy and hairy woodpeckers, they feed upon wood-boring grubs
-and ants, but the number of ants eaten is much greater than that eaten
-by the other two species. Of the flickers' stomachs examined, three were
-completely filled with ants. Two of these contained more than 3,000
-individuals each, while the third contained fully 5,000. These ants
-belong to species which live in the ground. It is these insects for
-which the flicker searches when it runs about in the grass, although
-some grasshoppers also are then taken. The flicker's habit of pecking
-holes in buildings sometimes greatly annoys its human friends, and it
-is particularly noticeable in the California species. Observation has
-shown that the object of the work is to obtain shelter for the winter.
-In the East most of the flickers are migratory, and only a few remain
-North where shelter is necessary. These generally find a safe retreat
-in the hollow tree In which they nested. In California, however, where
-the birds do not migrate, trees are not so abundant as in the East, and
-consequently buildings are brought into requisition, and in them holes
-are drilled, usually under the eaves, where snug nights' lodgings are
-found. Often a dozen holes may be seen in one building. Barns or other
-outbuildings are usually selected, though churches sometimes have been
-used.
-
-[57] _Colaptes auratus_.
-
-[58] _Colaptes cafer collaris_.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Red-headed woodpecker. Length, about 9½
-inches.]
-
-The red-headed woodpecker[59] (fig. 22) is well known east of the Rocky
-Mountains, but Is rather rare in New England. Unlike some of the other
-species, it prefers fence posts and telegraph poles to trees as a
-foraging ground. Its food therefore naturally differs from that of the
-preceding species, and consists largely of adult beetles and wasps which
-it frequently captures on the wing after the fashion of flycatchers.
-Grasshoppers also form an important part of the food. Among the beetles
-are a number of predacious ground species and some tiger beetles, which
-are useful insects. The red-head has been accused of robbing nests of
-other birds, and of pecking out the brains of young birds and poultry;
-but as the stomachs showed little evidence to substantiate this charge,
-the habit probably is exceptional.
-
-[59] _Melanerpes erythrocephalus_.
-
-The vegetable food of woodpeckers is varied, but consists largely of
-small fruits and berries. The downy and hairy woodpeckers eat such
-fruits as dogwood and Virginia creeper and seeds of poison ivy, sumac,
-and a few other shrubs. The flicker also eats a great many small fruits
-and the seeds of a considerable number of shrubs and weeds. None of
-the three species is much given to eating cultivated fruits or crops.
-The red-head has been accused of eating the larger kinds of fruit, as
-apples, and also of taking considerable corn. Stomach examinations show
-that to some extent these charges are substantiated, but that the habit
-is not prevalent enough to cause much damage. The bird is fond of mast,
-especially beechnuts, and when these nuts are plentiful it remains north
-all winter.
-
-Woodpeckers apparently are the only agents which can successfully cope
-with certain insect enemies of the forest, and, to some extent, with
-those of fruit trees also. For this reason, if for no other, they should
-be protected in every possible way.
-
-
-
-
-THE CUCKOOS.
-
-
-Two species of cuckoos are common In the United States east of the Great
-Plains, the yellow-billed cuckoo[60] (fig. 23) and the black-billed
-cuckoo,[61] and in the West a relative of the yellow-bill, the California
-cuckoo,[62] ranges from Colorado and Texas to the Pacific coast. While
-the two species are quite distinct, the food habits of the yellow-bill
-and the black-bill do not greatly differ and their economic status is
-practically the same.
-
-[60] _Coccyzus americanus_.
-
-[61] _Coccyzus erythyropthalmus_.
-
-[62] _Coccyzus americanus occidentalis_.
-
-Examination of 155 stomachs has shown that these species are much given
-to eating caterpillars, and, unlike most birds, do not reject those
-covered with hair. In fact, cuckoos eat so many hairy caterpillars that
-the hairs pierce the inner lining of the stomach and remain there, and
-often when the stomach is opened it appears to be lined with a thin
-coating of fur.
-
-[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Yellow-billed cuckoo. Length, about 12 inches.]
-
-An examination of the stomachs of 46 black-billed cuckoos, taken during
-the summer months, showed the remains of 906 caterpillars, 44 beetles,
-96 grasshoppers, 100 sawflies, 30 stinkbugs, and 15 spiders. In all
-probability more individuals than these were represented, but their
-remains were too badly broken for recognition. Most of the caterpillars
-were hairy, and many of them belong to a genus that lives in colonies and
-feeds on the leaves of trees, including the apple tree. One stomach was
-filled with larvæ of a caterpillar belonging to the same genus as the
-tent caterpillar, and possibly to that species. Other larvæ were those
-of large moths, for which the bird seems to have a special fondness. The
-beetles were for the most part click beetles and weevils, as well as a
-few May beetles. The sawflies were contained in two stomachs, one of
-which held no less than 60 in the larval stage.
-
-Of the yellow-billed cuckoo, 109 stomachs (collected from May to October)
-were examined. They contained 1,865 caterpillars, 93 beetles, 242
-grasshoppers, 37 sawflies, 69 bugs, 6 flies, and 86 spiders. As in the
-case of the black-billed cuckoo, most of the caterpillars belonged to
-hairy species and many of them were of large size. One stomach contained
-250 American tent caterpillars; another 217 fall webworms. The beetles
-were distributed among several families, all more or less harmful to
-agriculture. In the same stomach which contained the tent caterpillars
-were 2 Colorado potato beetles; in another were 3 goldsmith beetles, and
-remains of several other large beetles. Besides the ordinary grasshoppers
-were several katydids and tree crickets. The sawflies were in the larval
-stage, in which they resemble caterpillars so closely that they are
-commonly called false caterpillars by entomologists. The bugs consisted
-of stinkbugs and cicadas, or dog-day harvest flies, with the single
-exception of one wheel bug, which was the only useful insect eaten.
-
-
-
-
-BOBWHITE.
-
-
-No bird is better known to country residents than the bobwhite[63] (see
-illustration on title-page). The bird's cheery calls the year round form
-part of the most pleasant associations of country life, and its neat form
-and harmonious coloration, and especially its confiding habits, make it a
-general favorite.
-
-[63] _Colinus virginianus._
-
-Any bushy fence row serves as a retreat for its nest, or for winter
-shelter, and weed-covered fields are its favorite feeding places. Weed
-seeds form more than half the total food and include those of all
-the worst weed pests of the farm. Among them may be mentioned crab,
-cockspur, witch, and foxtail grasses, sheep sorrel, smartweed, bindweed,
-lamb's-quarters, pigweeds, corn cockle, chickweed, charlock, partridge
-pea, beggar lice, nail grass, rib grass, ragweed, and Spanish needles.
-
-Acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, and pine seeds make up about 2.5 per cent
-of the food, and wild fruit about 10 per cent The fruits include berries
-of palmetto, smilax, wax myrtle, mulberry, sassafras, blackberries and
-raspberries, rose haws, cherry, sumac, grapes, sour gum, blueberries,
-honeysuckle, partridgeberry, and a number of others. The bobwhite feeds
-to a slight extent upon buds and leaves, including those of yellow and
-red sorrel, cinquefoil, and clover.
-
-Grain forms scarcely more than a sixth of the food, and most of it is
-taken during winter and early spring when nothing but waste grain is
-available The habit of gleaning this after the harvest is beneficial
-to the farm, for volunteer grain is not desirable, especially where it
-serves to maintain certain insect and fungus pests. Although most of the
-grain and seed crops grown upon the farm are represented in bobwhite's
-dietary, no significant damage can be attributed to the bird.
-
-Animal food, chiefly insects, composed nearly a sixth of the bird's
-subsistence. From June to August, inclusive, when insects are most
-numerous, their proportion in the food is about 36 per cent. The variety
-of insect food is great and includes a number of the most destructive
-agricultural pests. Among them may be mentioned the Colorado potato
-beetle, 12-spotted cucumber beetle, bean leaf beetle, squash ladybird,
-wire-worms. May beetles, corn billbugs, clover-leaf weevil, army worm,
-boilworm, cutworms, and chinch bug.
-
-The food habits of the bobwhite undoubtedly are beneficial and the bird
-should be maintained in numbers on every farm. This is not to say that
-all shooting should be prohibited, for the bird is very prolific. But its
-numbers should not be reduced below what the available nesting sites and
-range will support. On the other hand the policy of absolute protection
-recently adopted by one of the States is not called for by strictly
-economic considerations.
-
-
-                    *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-       ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
-                 WHEN THIS PUBLICATION WAS LAST PRINTED
-
-
-  _Secretary of Agriculture_            Henry A. Wallace.
-  _Under Secretary_                     Rexford G. Tugwell.
-  _Assistant Secretary_                 M. L. Wilson.
-  _Director of Extension Work_          C. W. Warburton.
-  _Director of Personnel_               W. W. Stockberger.
-  _Director of Information_             M. S. Eisenhower.
-  _Director of Finance_                 W. A. Jump.
-  _Solicitor_                           Seth Thomas.
-  _Agricultural Adjustment              Chester C. Davis,
-     Administration_                      _Administrator_.
-  _Bureau of Agricultural Economics_    A. G. Black, _Chief_.
-  _Bureau of Agricultural Engineering_  S. H. McCrory, _Chief_.
-  _Bureau of Animal Industry_           John R. Mohler, _Chief_.
-  _Bureau of Biological Survey_         J. N. Darling, _Chief_.
-  _Bureau of Chemistry and Soils_       H. G. Knight, _Chief_.
-  _Bureau of Dairy Industry_            O. E. Reed, _Chief_.
-  _Bureau of Entomology and Plant       Lee A. Strong, _Chief_.
-    Quarantine_
-  _Office of Experiment Stations_       James T. Jardine, _Chief_.
-  _Food and Drug Administration_        Walter G. Campbell, _Chief_.
-  _Forest Service_                      Ferdinand A. Silcox, _Chief_.
-  _Grain Futures Administration_        J. W. T. Duvel, _Chief_.
-  _Bureau of Home Economics_            Louise Stanley, _Chief_.
-  _Library_                             Claribel R. Barnett, _Librarian_.
-  _Bureau of Plant Industry_            Frederick D. Richey, _Chief_.
-  _Bureau of Public Roads_              Thomas H. MacDonald, _Chief_.
-  _Weather Bureau_                      Willis R. Gregg, _Chief_.
-
-
-
-                                   U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1935
-
-
-     For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.
-                              Price 5 cents
-
-
-                    *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-Transcriber Notes
-
-
-All illustrations were moved so as to not split paragraphs. There does
-not appear to be a footnote numbered "2", therefore, the one numbered "3"
-and all following footnote numbers were decremented by 1.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 630, by F. E. L. Beal
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK USDA FARMERS' BULLETIN NO. 630 ***
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-    <title>
-      USDA Farmers' Bulletin 630: Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer, by F. E. L. Beal, a Project Gutenberg eBook.
-    </title>
-    <style type="text/css">
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-<pre>
-
-Project Gutenberg's USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 630, by F. E. L. Beal
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 630
-       Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer
-
-Author: F. E. L. Beal
-
-Release Date: July 17, 2020 [EBook #62678]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK USDA FARMERS' BULLETIN NO. 630 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Tom Cosmas
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div class="fig_center" style="width: 283px; padding-bottom: 2em;">
-<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="283" height="456" alt="USDA Farmers' Bulletin 630: Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer" />
-</div>
-
-
-
-<div class="center bbox" style="width: 80%; margin: 0 auto; padding:2em">
-
-<div class="dropcap">F</div>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">F</span>ROM a purely practical point of view the most
-important of the relations of native birds to
-man are the economic. The esthetic value of birds
-is great&mdash;greater, indeed, than that of any other
-group of animals; and that this is a real and especially
-treasured value is not to be denied. But it
-is in their relation to insect and other enemies of
-crops that birds are most directly associated with
-the welfare of mankind, and their value in this particular
-should be made as widely known as possible.</p>
-
-<p>This bulletin is one of a series designed to assist
-in doing this. Not all birds are beneficial, and all
-facts tending to show in which class each species
-belongs will be set forth. The useful kinds far outnumber
-the injurious, however, and so great is their
-value as insect destroyers in the United States that
-to them may be given the credit of being one of
-the greatest controlling factors in limiting the development
-of insect pests and in preventing many
-disastrous outbreaks.</p>
-
-<p>In the following pages are discussed the habitat,
-food habits, and relation to agriculture of more than
-50 species of birds common to farming sections.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="center bbox" style="width: 80%; margin: 0 auto; padding:2em">
-
-<div class="tdl">Washington, D. C.</div>
-
-<div class="tdr">Issued February 13, 1915; revised April, 1926</div>
-
-</div>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">« 1 »</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<p class="pmt4 center"><span class="caption1">SOME COMMON BIRDS<br />USEFUL TO THE FARMER.</span><a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
-
-
-<p class="caption3">By <span class="smcap">F. E. L. Beal</span>, Late <i>Assistant Biologist, Division of Food Habits Research,
-Bureau of Biological Survey</i>.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This bulletin is largely a revision of Farmers&rsquo; Bulletin 54, by Prof. F. E. L. Beal.
-The parts relating to the crow and blue Jay were contributed by E. R. Kalmbach,
-assistant biologist, and the discussion of the nighthawk and bobwhite by W. L. McAtee,
-in charge. Food Habits Research. Professor Beal, author of the remainder of the bulletin,
-died October 1, 1916.</p></div>
-
-
-
-
-<p class="caption2">CONTENTS</p>
-
-
-<table summary="ToC">
-<tr>
-  <td></td>
-  <td class="smaller tdr">Page.</td>
-  <td></td>
-  <td class="smaller tdr">Page.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The bluebirds</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_BLUEBIRDS">2</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">Bullock oriole</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#BULLOCK_ORIOLE">14</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The robins</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_ROBINS">3</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">The meadowlarks</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_MEADOWLARKS">14</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The titmice</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_TITMICE">4</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">The red-winged blackbirds</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#RED-WINGED_BLACKBIRDS">15</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The wrens</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_WRENS">6</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">Bobolink</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#BOBOLINK">17</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Brown thrasher</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#BROWN_THRASHER">7</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">Crow</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#CROW">17</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Catbird</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#CATBIRD">7</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">Blue jay</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#BLUE_JAY">19</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The swallows</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_SWALLOWS">8</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">Pacific coast jays</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#PACIFIC_COAST_JAYS">20</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Towhee</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#TOWHEE">9</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">The ph&oelig;bes</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_PHOEBES">21</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The sparrows</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_SPARROWS">9</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">The kingbirds</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_KINGBIRDS">23</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">House finch</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#HOUSE_FINCH">11</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">Nighthawk</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#NIGHTHAWK">24</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">The grackles</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_GRACKLES">12</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">The woodpeckers</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_WOODPECKERS">25</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Brewer blackbird</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#BREWER_BLACKBIRD">12</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">The cuckoos</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#THE_CUCKOOS">27</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl">Baltimore oriole</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#BALTIMORE_ORIOLE">13</a></td>
-  <td class="tdl2">Bobwhite</td>
-  <td class="tdr"><a href="#BOBWHITE">28</a></td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="dropcap">W</div>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">W</span>HETHER 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 examinations can it be satisfactorily
-answered. 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 a systematic
-investigation of the food of those species which are most common
-about the farm and garden.</p>
-
-<p>Within certain limits birds eat the kind of food that is most
-accessible, especially when their natural food is scarce or wanting.
-Thus they sometimes injure the crops of the farmer who has unintentionally
-destroyed their natural food in his improvement of
-swamp or pasture. Most of the damage done by birds and complained
-of by farmers and fruit growers arises from this very cause,
-the berry-producing shrubs and seed-bearing weeds have been cleared
-away, and the birds have no recourse but to attack the cultivated
-grain or fruit which has replaced their natural food supply. The
-great majority of land birds subsist upon insects during the period
-of nesting and molting, and also feed their young upon them during
-the first few weeks. Many species live almost entirely upon insects,
-taking vegetable food only when other subsistence fails. It is thus
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">« 2 »</a></span>
-evident that in the course of a year birds destroy an incalculable
-number of insects, and it is difficult to overestimate the value of their
-services in restraining the great tide of insect life.</p>
-
-<p>In winter, in the northern part of the country, insects become
-scarce or entirely disappear. Many species of birds, however, remain
-during the cold season and are able to maintain life by eating vegetable
-food, as the seeds of weeds. Here again is another useful function
-of birds in destroying these weed seeds and thereby lessening
-the growth of the next year.</p>
-
-<p>In the following pages are discussed the food habits of more than
-50 birds belonging to 12 families. Many are eastern forms which
-are represented in the West by slightly different species or subspecies,
-but unless the food habits differ they are not separately
-described. In some cases specific percentages of food are given,
-but for the most part the statements are made without direct reference
-to the data on which they are based.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_BLUEBIRDS" id="THE_BLUEBIRDS">THE BLUEBIRDS.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>The eastern bluebird<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> (<a href="#fig1">fig. 1</a>), one of the most familiar and welcome of our
-feathered visitors, is a common inhabitant of all the States east of the Rocky
-Mountains from the Gulf of Mexico to southern Canada. In the Mississippi
-valley it winters as far north as southern Illinois, and in the East as far as
-Pennsylvania. It is one of the earliest northern migrants, and everywhere is
-hailed as a harbinger of spring. Very domestic in habits, it frequents orchards
-and gardens, and builds its nests in
-cavities of trees, crannies in farm
-buildings, or boxes provided for its
-use.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>Sialia sialis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 258px;">
-<a id="fig1" name="fig1"></a>
-<img src="images/fig1.png" width="258" height="223" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 1.</span>&mdash;Bluebird. Length, about 6&frac12; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The bluebird has not been accused,
-so far as known, of stealing fruit or
-of preying upon crops. An examination
-of 855 stomachs showed that 68
-per cent of the food consists of insects
-and their allies, while the other
-32 per cent is made up of various
-vegetable substances, found mostly in
-stomachs taken in winter. Beetles
-constitute 21 per cent of the whole
-food, grasshoppers 22, caterpillars 10,
-and various other insects 9, while a
-number of spiders and myriapods,
-about 6 per cent, comprise the remainder
-of the animal diet. All
-these are more or less harmful, except
-a few predacious beetles, which amount to 9 per cent. In view of the large
-consumption of grasshoppers and caterpillars, we may at least condone this
-offense, if such it may be called. The destruction of grasshoppers is very
-noticeable in August and September, when these insects make up about 53 per
-cent of the diet.</p>
-
-<p>It is evident that in the selection of its food the bluebird is governed more
-by abundance than by choice. Predacious beetles are eaten in spring, as they
-are among the first insects to appear; but in early summer caterpillars form
-an important part of the diet, and these are later replaced by grasshoppers.
-Beetles are eaten at all times, except when grasshoppers are more easily
-obtained.</p>
-
-<p>So far as its vegetable food is concerned the bluebird is positively harmless.
-The only trace of any useful product in the stomachs consisted of a few blackberry
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">« 3 »</a></span>
-seeds, and even these probably belonged to wild rather than cultivated
-varieties. Following is a list of the various seeds which were found; Blackberry,
-chokeberry, juniperberry, pokeberry, partridgeberry, greenbrier, Virginia
-creeper, bittersweet, holly, strawberry bush, false spikenard, wild sarsaparilla,
-sumac (several species), rose haws, sorrel, ragweed, grass, and asparagus. This
-list shows how little the bluebird depends upon the farm or garden to supply
-its needs and how easily, by encouraging the growth of some of these plants,
-many of which are highly ornamental, the bird may be induced to make its
-home on the premises.</p>
-
-<p>Two species of bluebirds inhabit the Western States&mdash;the mountain bluebird<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
-and the western bluebird.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> In their food habits they are even more to be commended
-than their eastern relative. Their insect food is obtainable at all
-times of the year, and the general diet varies only in the fall, when some fruit,
-principally elderberries, is eaten, though an occasional blackberry or grape is
-also relished. In an examination of 217 stomachs of the western bluebird, animal
-matter (insects and spiders) was found to the extent of 82 per cent and
-vegetable matter to the extent of 18 per cent. The bulk of the former consists
-of bugs, grasshoppers, and caterpillars. Grasshoppers, when they can be obtained,
-are eaten freely during the whole season. Caterpillars also are a
-favorite food and are eaten during every month of the year; March is the month
-of greatest consumption, with 50 per cent, and the average for the year is 20
-per cent. Two stomachs taken in January contained 64 and 50 per cent, respectively,
-of caterpillars. Beetles also
-are eaten and comprise mostly
-harmful species.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Sialia currucoides</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Sialia mexicana</i> subspecies.</p></div>
-
-<p>The vegetable matter consists of
-weed seeds and small fruits. In
-December a few grapes are eaten,
-but elderberries are the favorites
-whenever they can be found. It is
-only when these are in their greatest
-abundance that vegetable exceeds
-animal food.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_ROBINS" id="THE_ROBINS">THE ROBINS.</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 268px;">
-<a id="fig2" name="fig2"></a>
-<img src="images/fig2.png" width="268" height="165" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 2.</span>&mdash;Robin. Length, about 10 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The robin<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> (<a href="#fig2">fig. 2</a>), in many parts
-of the country one of the most cherished
-of our birds, is found throughout the States east of the Great Plains, and is
-represented farther west and south by slightly different subspecies.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>, <a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> It
-breeds far north through Canada, and is found even in Alaska. Although the
-great bulk of the species leaves the Northern States in winter, a few individuals
-remain in sheltered swamps, where wild berries furnish abundant food. The
-robin is an omnivorous feeder and its food habits have sometimes caused apprehension
-to the fruit grower, for it is fond of cherries and other small fruits,
-particularly the earlier varieties. For this reason many complaints have been
-lodged against robins, and it has been necessary to permit the killing of the
-birds in some fruit-growing regions.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Planesticus migratorius</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Planesticus migratorius propinquus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Planesticus migratorius achrusterus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Examinations of 1,236 stomachs show that 42 per cent of its food is animal
-matter, principally insects, while the remainder is made up largely of small
-fruits or berries. Over 16 per cent consists of beetles, about one-third of which
-are useful ground beetles, taken mostly in spring and fall when other insects
-are scarce. Grasshoppers make up about 5 per cent of the whole food, but in
-August they comprise 17 per cent. Caterpillars form about 9 per cent, while
-the rest of the animal food, about 11 per cent, is made up of various insects,
-with a few spiders, snails, and angleworms. All the grasshoppers, caterpillars,
-and bugs, with a large portion of the beetles, are injurious, and it is safe to
-say that noxious insects comprise more than one-third of the robin&rsquo;s food.</p>
-
-<p>Vegetable food forms 58 per cent of the stomach contents, over 42 per cent
-being wild fruits and only a little more than 8 per cent being possibly cultivated
-varieties. Cultivated fruit amounting to about 25 per cent was found in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">« 4 »</a></span>
-the stomachs in June and July, but only a trifle in August. Wild fruit, on the
-contrary, is eaten every month and constitutes a staple food during half the
-year. No less than 65 species of fruit were identified in the stomachs; of these,
-the most important were 4 species of dogwood, 3 of wild cherries, 3 of wild
-grapes, 4 of greenbrier, 2 of holly, 2 of elder; and cranberries, huckleberries,
-blueberries, barberries, service berries, hackberries, and persimmons; together
-with 4 species of sumac and various other seeds not strictly fruit.</p>
-
-<p>The depredations of the robin seem to be confined to the smaller and earlier
-fruits, few, if any, complaints being made that it eats apples, peaches, pears,
-grapes, or even late cherries. By the time these are ripe the forests and hedges
-are teeming with wild fruits which the bird evidently finds more to its taste.
-The cherry, unfortunately for man, ripens so early that it is almost the only
-fruit accessible at a time when the bird&rsquo;s appetite has been sharpened by a
-long-continued diet of insects, earthworms, and dried berries, and it is no
-wonder that at first the rich juicy morsels are greedily eaten.</p>
-
-<p>While the robin takes some cultivated fruits, it must be remembered that,
-being a natural enemy of the insect world, it has been working during the
-whole season to make that crop a possibility, and when the fruit ripens the
-robin already has a standing account with the farmer for services rendered,
-with the credits up to this time entirely on his side.</p>
-
-<p>Much has been written about the delicate discrimination of birds for choice
-fruit and their selection of only the finest and costliest varieties. This is contrary
-to observed facts. Birds, unlike human beings, seem to prefer fruit that,
-like the mulberry, is sweetly insipid, or that, like the chokecherry or holly, has
-some astringent or bitter quality. The so-called black alder, a species of holly,
-has bright scarlet berries tasting as bitter as quinine, that ripen late in October
-and remain on the bushes through November. Though frost grapes, the fruit
-of the Virginia creeper, and several species of dogwood are abundant at the
-same time, the birds have been found to eat the berries of the holly to a considerable
-extent. It is, moreover, a remarkable fact that the wild fruits upon
-which birds largely feed are those which man neither gathers for his own use
-nor adopts for cultivation.</p>
-
-<p>Where wild fruit is not abundant, a few fruit-bearing shrubs and vines
-judiciously planted will serve for ornament and provide food for the birds.
-The Russian mulberry is a vigorous grower and a profuse bearer, ripening at
-the same time as the cherry. So far as observation has gone, most birds seem
-to prefer its fruit to any other. It is believed that a number of mulberry trees
-planted around the garden or orchard would fully protect the more valuable
-fruits.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_TITMICE" id="THE_TITMICE">THE TITMICE.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>Birds of the titmouse family, though insignificant in size, are far from being
-so in the matter of food habits. What they lack in size of body they more than
-make up in numbers of individuals. While in the case of some larger birds, as,
-for instance, the flicker, there is one pair of eyes to look for food for one large
-stomach, we have in the case of the ten times as numerous titmice an equivalent
-stomach capacity divided into 10 parts, each furnished with a pair of eyes and
-other accessories, as wings and feet. As against the one place occupied by the
-larger bird, 10 are being searched for food at the same time by the smaller
-species.</p>
-
-<p>The character of the food of titmice gives a peculiar value to their services,
-for it consists largely of the small insects and their eggs that wholly escape the
-search of larger birds. Throughout the year most of the species of this group
-remain on their range, so that they are constantly engaged in their beneficial
-work, continuing it in winter when the majority of their coworkers have
-sought a milder clime. It is at this season that the titmice do their greatest
-good, for when flying and crawling insects are no more to be found, the birds
-must feed upon such species as they find hibernating in crevices, or upon the
-eggs of insects laid in similar places. In winter&rsquo;s dearth of moving insects the
-search for such animal food as may be found is perforce thorough and
-unremitting.</p>
-
-<p>Within the boundaries of the United States are some 17 species of titmice,
-with nearly as many races or subspecies, so that there is no portion of the
-country lacking one or more forms. The western coast region is peculiarly rich
-In representatives of the family. In the eastern portion of the country the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">« 5 »</a></span>
-best-known and most widely distributed species is the common black-capped
-chickadee<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> (<a href="#fig3">fig. 3</a>). This bird, or some of its subspecies, occupies the whole of
-that part of the United States north of the latitude of Washington and extends
-into Canada. It is a prolific breeder, usually rearing from six to eight young
-in a brood.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Penthestes atricapillus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 260px;">
-<a id="fig3" name="fig3"></a>
-<img src="images/fig3.png" width="260" height="289" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 3.</span>&mdash;Black-capped chickadee. Length,
-about 5&frac14; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Examination of 289 stomachs of this chickadee shows that its food consists of
-68 per cent animal matter (insects) and 32 per cent vegetable matter. The
-former is made up of small caterpillars and moths and their eggs. Prominent
-among the latter are the eggs of the tent caterpillar moths, both the orchard
-and forest species. As these are two of our most destructive insects, the good
-done by the chickadee in devouring their eggs needs no comment. During the
-winter the chickadee&rsquo;s food is made up of larvæ, chrysalids, and eggs of moths,
-varied by a few seeds, but as spring brings out hordes of flying, crawling, and
-jumping insects, the bird varies its diet by taking also some of these. Flies and
-bugs are the favorites until the weather becomes quite warm, when beetles and
-small wasps also are enjoyed. Among the bugs may be mentioned the plant
-lice and their eggs which are eaten
-in winter. The beetles nearly all belong
-to the group of snout beetles,
-more commonly known as weevils.
-These insects are mostly of small
-size, and nearly all are known to the
-farmer or fruit raiser as pests. Seventeen
-of them were found in one
-stomach. Grasshoppers do not at any
-time constitute an important element
-of the food of the chickadee, as they
-are too large for so small a bird;
-moreover, they are for the most part
-terrestrial Insects, while the bird is
-essentially arboreal. Small wasps
-and ants are eaten to some extent
-Spiders constitute an Important element
-of the food and are eaten at all
-times of the year, the birds locating
-them when they are hibernating in
-winter, as well as when they are active
-in summer. The vegetable food
-of the chickadee consists largely of
-small seeds, except in summer, when
-they are replaced by pulp of wild
-fruit. The wax from the seeds of
-poison ivy Is eaten during the winter months, but the seeds themselves are not
-taken. In this respect the chickadee differs from most other birds, which swallow
-the seeds whole; these, after digesting the wax, pass the seeds through the
-alimentary canal, or regurgitate them, and so scatter them broadcast to reproduce
-the noxious plants.</p>
-
-<p>In the southern part of the country the Carolina chickadee<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> and the tufted
-tit<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> replace the black-cap, but their food habits are so similar that there is
-practically no difference in the work done. In the West several other species
-occur; one of the most interesting is the bush tit<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> which, with several subspecies,
-occupies the whole Pacific coast region. They are active, social little
-creatures, and except for a short time during the breeding season are found in
-flocks, flitting from tree to tree, busily hunting for Insects and their eggs. The
-contents of 66 stomachs of these birds were found to consist mostly of injurious
-insects to the extent of 83 per cent. Of these the most important was a small
-hemipterous insect which amounted to more than half of the stomach contents.
-These insects are of considerable economic importance, as they frequently
-infest grapevines and other plants to a harmful extent Several stomachs were
-almost exclusively filled with these minute creatures, some containing as many
-as 100 individuals.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> <i>Penthestes carolinensis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Bæolophus bicolor</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Psaltriparus minimus</i>.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">« 6 »</a></span></p></div>
-
-<p>Perhaps the most important and interesting insect found was the black olive
-scale, which occurred in 24 stomachs and amounted to a little more than 18
-per cent of the food. In addition, a number of the stomachs were more or less
-filled with another scale, which was not further identified. A number of small
-snout beetles (weevils) were eaten and some small caterpillars; there were also
-the remains of a spider.</p>
-
-<p>The vegetable food of the species seemed to consist mostly of seeds, but they
-were so broken up as to defy recognition. A little fruit pulp and a little mast
-were also found.</p>
-
-<p>Among the stomachs of the bush tits examined were those of one brood of
-eight nestlings about 10 days old. The vegetable matter in these stomachs was
-only three-fourths of 1 per cent and consisted of one seed and some rubbish.
-The animal matter was made up of beetles, wasps, bugs, caterpillars and pupæ,
-and spiders. The greatest interest lies in the fact that every one of these stomachs
-contained pupæ of the codling moth, on an average of over five to each.
-The oak tree in which these birds were found was in a belt of timber near a
-neglected orchard which the parent birds used as a foraging ground, and they
-did their best to remedy the neglect of the owner. As feeding and digestion
-in the case of nestling birds is almost continuous during the hours of daylight,
-the above record would be several times repeated during a day&rsquo;s feeding. There
-were probably not less than a
-dozen nests of the bush tit along
-the border of this orchard, and
-these birds must have exerted a
-great restrictive influence upon the
-increase of the codling moth, as
-well as of other insects in that
-vicinity.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_WRENS" id="THE_WRENS">THE WRENS.</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 260px;">
-<a id="fig4" name="fig4"></a>
-<img src="images/fig4.png" width="260" height="223" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 4.</span>&mdash;House wren. Length, about 4&frac34; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The diminutive house wren<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>
-(<a href="#fig4">fig. 4</a>) frequents barns and gardens,
-and particularly old orchards
-in which the trees are partially
-decayed. He makes his nest in a
-hollow where perhaps a woodpecker
-had a domicile the year
-before, but he is a pugnacious character,
-and if he happens to fancy
-one of the boxes put up for bluebirds,
-he does not hesitate to take it He is usually not slow to avail himself
-of boxes, gourds, tin cans, or empty jars placed for his accommodation.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Troglodytes aëdon</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>In food habits the house wren is entirely beneficial. He may be said to
-live upon animal food alone, for an examination of 88 stomachs showed that
-98 per cent of the contents was made up of insects or their allies, and only 2
-per cent was vegetable food, including bits of grass and similar matter, evidently
-taken by accident with the insects. Half of this food consisted of
-grasshoppers and beetles; the remainder of caterpillars, bugs, and spiders.
-As the wren is a prolific breeder, frequently rearing in a season from 12 to 16
-young, a family of these birds must cause considerable reduction in the number
-of insects in a garden. Wrens are industrious foragers, searching every tree,
-shrub, and vine for caterpillars, and examining every post and rail of the fence
-and every cranny in the wall for insects or spiders.</p>
-
-<p>The house wren is only one of a numerous group of small birds of similar
-habits. There are within the limits of the United States 28 species and subspecies
-of wrens, occupying more or less completely the whole country from
-the Atlantic to the Pacific. With the exception of the marsh wrens,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> they all
-appear to prefer some cosy nook for a nesting site, and, as it happens, the
-farm buildings afford just the place desired. This has led several of the wrens
-to seek out the habitations of man, and he is benefited by their destruction of
-noxious insects. Wrens have rarely been accused of harm, and their presence
-should be encouraged except when undue interference with the nests of other
-birds is noted.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Telmatodytes palustris</i> and <i>Cistotherus stellaris</i>.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">« 7 »</a></span></p></div>
-
-
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="BROWN_THRASHER" id="BROWN_THRASHER">BROWN THRASHER.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>The brown thrasher<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> (<a href="#fig5">fig. 5</a>) breeds throughout the United States east of the
-Great Plains, and winters in the South Atlantic and Gulf States. It visits
-the garden or orchard, its nest, however, being in dense shrubbery or groves.
-The thrasher&rsquo;s favorite time for singing is in early morning, when, perched
-on the top of a bush or tree, it gives an exhibition of vocal powers which
-would do credit to the mockingbird.
-Indeed, in the South, where the latter
-bird is abundant, the thrasher is
-known as the sandy mocker.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Toxostoma rufum</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 259px;">
-<a id="fig5" name="fig5"></a>
-<img src="images/fig5.png" width="259" height="186" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 5.</span>&mdash;Brown thrasher. Length, about 11 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The food of the brown thrasher
-consists of both fruit and insects.
-An examination of 636 stomachs
-showed 59 per cent of vegetable and
-41 per cent of animal food, practically
-all insects, and mostly taken in
-spring before fruit was ripe. Half
-the insects were beetles and the remainder
-chiefly grasshoppers, caterpillars,
-bugs, and spiders. A few
-predacious beetles were eaten, but on
-the whole the work of the species as
-an insect destroyer may be considered beneficial.</p>
-
-<p>Eight per cent of its food is made up of fruits like raspberries and currants
-which are or may be cultivated, but the raspberries at least are as likely to
-belong to wild as to cultivated varieties. Grain, made up mostly of scattered
-kernels of oats and corn, is merely a trifle, amounting to only 3 per cent.
-Though some of the corn may be taken from newly planted fields, it is amply
-paid for by the destruction of May beetles which are eaten at the same time.
-The rest of the food consists of wild fruit or seeds. Taken all in all, the brown
-thrasher is a useful bird, and probably does as good work in its secluded
-retreats as it would about the garden, for the swamps and groves are no doubt
-the breeding grounds of many insects
-that migrate thence to attack
-the crops of the farmer.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="CATBIRD" id="CATBIRD">CATBIRD.</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 266px;">
-<a id="fig6" name="fig6"></a>
-<img src="images/fig6.png" width="266" height="219" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 6.</span>&mdash;Catbird. Length, about 9 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The catbird<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> (<a href="#fig6">fig. 6</a>), like the
-thrasher, is a lover of thickets and
-delights to make its home in a tangle
-of wild grapevines, greenbriers, and
-shrubs, where it is safe from attack
-and can find its favorite food in
-abundance. It is found throughout
-the United States west to the Rocky
-Mountains, and extends also from
-Washington, Idaho, and Utah northward
-into the Provinces of Canada.
-It winters in the Southern States,
-Cuba, Mexico, and Central America.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>Dumetella carolinensis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Reports from the Mississippi Valley indicate that the catbird is sometimes a
-serious annoyance to fruit growers. The reason for such reports may possibly
-be found in the fact that on the prairies fruit-bearing shrubs, which afford so
-large a part of this bird&rsquo;s food, are conspicuously absent With the settlement
-of this region comes an extensive planting of orchards, vineyards, and small-fruit
-gardens, which furnish shelter and nesting sites for the catbird as well
-as for other species. There is in consequence a large increase in the numbers
-of the birds, but no corresponding gain in the supply of native fruits upon
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">« 8 »</a></span>
-which they were accustomed to feed. Under these circumstances what is more
-natural than for the birds to turn to cultivated fruit for their food. The
-remedy is obvious: Cultivated fruits can be protected by the simple expedient
-of planting the wild species which are preferred by the birds. Some experiments
-with catbirds in captivity show that the Russian mulberry is preferred
-to any cultivated fruit.</p>
-
-<p>The stomachs of 645 catbirds were examined and found to contain 44 per
-cent of animal (insect) and 56 per cent of vegetable food. Ants, beetles, caterpillars,
-and grasshoppers constitute three-fourths of the animal food, the remainder
-being made up of bugs, miscellaneous insects, and spiders. One-third
-of the vegetable food consists of cultivated fruits, or those which may be
-cultivated, as strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries; but while we debit
-the bird with the whole of this, it is probable&mdash;and in the eastern and well-wooded
-part of the country almost certain&mdash;that a large part is obtained from
-wild vines. The rest of the vegetable matter is mostly wild fruit, as cherries,
-dogwood, sour gum, elderberries, greenbrier, spiceberries, black alder, sumac,
-and poison ivy. Although the catbird sometimes does considerable harm by
-destroying small fruit, it can not on the whole be considered injurious. On
-the contrary, in most parts of the
-country it does far more good than
-harm.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_SWALLOWS" id="THE_SWALLOWS">THE SWALLOWS.</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 265px;">
-<a id="fig7" name="fig7"></a>
-<img src="images/fig7.png" width="265" height="270" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 7.</span>&mdash;Barn swallow. Length, about 7 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Seven common species of swallows
-are found within the limits of
-the United States, four of which
-have abandoned to some extent their
-primitive nesting habits and have
-attached themselves to the abodes
-of man.</p>
-
-<p>In the eastern part of the country
-the barn swallow<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> (<a href="#fig7">fig. 7</a>) now
-builds exclusively under roofs, having
-entirely abandoned the rock
-caves and cliffs in which it formerly
-nested. More recently the
-cliff swallow<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> has found a better
-nesting site under the eaves of
-buildings than was afforded by the
-overhanging cliffs of earth or stone
-which it once used and to which it
-still resorts occasionally in the East and habitually in the unsettled West. The
-martin<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and the white-bellied, or tree, swallow<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> nest either in houses supplied
-for the purpose, in abandoned nests of woodpeckers, or in natural crannies
-in rocks. The northern violet-green swallow,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> the rough-winged swallow,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> and
-the bank swallow<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> still live in practically such places as their ancestors chose.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>Hirundo erythrogastra</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Petrochelidon lunifrons</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Progne subis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>Iridoprocne bicolor</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>Tachycineta thalassina</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> <i>Stelgidopteryx serripennis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Riparia riparia</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Field observation convinces an ordinarily attentive person that the food of
-swallows must consist of the smaller insects captured in mid-air or picked from
-the tops of tall grass or weeds. This observation is borne out by an examination
-of stomachs, which shows that the food is made up of many small species
-of beetles which are much on the wing; many species of flies, together with
-large quantities of flying ants; and a few insects of similar kinds. Most of
-these are either injurious or annoying, and the numbers destroyed by swallows
-are not only beyond calculation but almost beyond imagination.</p>
-
-<p>Unlike many other groups of birds, the six species of swallows found in the
-Eastern States extend in a practically unchanged form across the continent,
-where they are reinforced by the northern, or Pacific-coast, violet-green swallow.</p>
-
-<p>It is a mistake to tear down from the eaves of a barn the nests of a colony of
-cliff swallows, for so far from disfiguring a building they make a picturesque
-addition to it, and the presence of swallows should be encouraged by every
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">« 9 »</a></span>
-device. It is said that cliff and barn swallows may be induced to build their
-nests in a particular locality, otherwise suitable, by providing a quantity of
-mud to be used by them as mortar. Barn swallows may also be encouraged by
-cutting a small hole in the gable of the barn, while martins and white-bellied
-swallows will be grateful for boxes like those for the bluebird, but placed in a
-higher situation.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="TOWHEE" id="TOWHEE">TOWHEE.</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 274px;">
-<a id="fig8" name="fig8"></a>
-<img src="images/fig8.png" width="274" height="166" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 8.</span>&mdash;Towhee. Length, about 8 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The towhee, chewink, or ground robin<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> (<a href="#fig8">fig. 8</a>), as it is variously known,
-inhabits nearly the whole of the United States east of the Great Plains. It
-breeds from the Middle States northward and winters in the southern half of
-the country. Naturally associated with the catbird and brown thrasher, it
-lives in much the same places, though it is more given to haunting hedgerows
-along roads and fences. After snow has disappeared in early spring an investigation
-of the rustling so often
-heard among the leaves near a
-fence or in a thicket will frequently
-disclose a towhee hard at
-work scratching for his dinner
-after the manner of a hen; and
-in these places and along the sunny
-border of woods old leaves will be
-found overturned where the bird
-has been searching for hibernating
-beetles and larvæ. The good which
-the towhee does in this way can
-hardly be overestimated, since the
-death of a single insect at this
-time, before it has had an opportunity
-to deposit its eggs, is equivalent
-to the destruction of a host
-later in the year. The towhee has also been credited with visiting potato
-fields and feeding upon the potato beetle. Its vegetable food consists
-of seeds and small wild fruits, but no complaint on this score is known
-to have been made. So for as observation goes, the bird never touches either
-cultivated fruit or grain; in fact, it is too shy and retiring even to stay about
-gardens for any length of time.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Pipilo erythrophthalmus</i>.</p></div>
-
-
-
-
-<p class="center"><a name="THE_SPARROWS" id="THE_SPARROWS"></a><span class="caption2">THE SPARROWS.</span><a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The sparrows here mentioned are all native species. A full account of the English,
-or house, sparrow (<i>Passer domesticus</i>), including its introduction, habits, and depredations,
-was published In Bull. No. 1 of the Division of Ornithology in 1889. For information
-in regard to combating the English sparrow, see U. S. Department of Agriculture
-Leaflet 61, English Sparrow Control.</p></div>
-
-
-
-<p>Sparrows are not obtrusive birds, either in plumage, song, or action. There
-are some 40 species, with nearly as many subspecies, in North America. Not
-more than half a dozen forms are generally known in any one locality. All the
-species are more or less migratory, but so widely are they distributed that there
-is probably no part of the country where some can not be found throughout the
-year.</p>
-
-<p>While sparrows are noted seed eaters, they do not by any means confine
-themselves to a vegetable diet. During the summer, and especially in the
-breeding season, they eat many insects and feed their young largely upon the
-same food. Examination of stomachs of three species&mdash;the song sparrow<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>
-(<a href="#fig9">fig. 9</a>), chipping sparrow,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> and field sparrow<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> (<a href="#fig10">fig. 10</a>)&mdash;shows that about one-third
-of the food consists of insects, comprising many injurious beetles, as
-snout beetles or weevils, and leaf beetles. Many grasshoppers are eaten. In
-the case of the chipping sparrow these insects form one-eighth of the food.
-Grasshoppers would seem to be rather large morsels, but the bird probably
-confines itself to the smaller species; indeed, the greatest amount (over 36 per
-cent) is eaten in June, when the larger species are still young and the smaller
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">« 10 »</a></span>
-most numerous. Besides the insects already mentioned, many wasps and bugs
-are taken. Predacious and parasitic hymenopterous insects and predacious
-beetles, all useful, are eaten only to a slight extent, so that as a whole the insect
-diet of the native sparrows may be considered beneficial. There are several
-records of potato-bug larvæ eaten by chipping sparrows.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> <i>Melospiza melodia</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Spizella passerina</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Spizella pusilla</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Their vegetable food is limited almost
-exclusively to hard seeds. This
-might seem to indicate that the birds
-feed to some extent upon grain, but
-the stomachs examined show only one
-kind, oats, and but little of that. The
-great bulk of the food is made up of
-grass and weed seeds, which form almost
-the entire diet during winter, and
-the amount consumed is immense.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 241px;">
-<a id="fig9" name="fig9"></a>
-<img src="images/fig9.png" width="241" height="181" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 9.</span>&mdash;Song sparrow. Length, about 6&frac12; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the agricultural region of the
-upper Mississippi Valley, by roadsides,
-on borders of cultivated fields, or in
-abandoned fields, wherever they can obtain
-a foothold, masses of rank weeds
-spring up and often form almost impenetrable
-thickets which afford food
-and shelter for immense numbers of
-birds and enable them to withstand great cold and the most terrible blizzards. A
-person visiting one of these weed patches on a sunny morning in January, when
-the thermometer is 20° or more below zero, will be struck with the life and
-animation of the busy little inhabitants. Instead of sitting forlorn and half
-frozen, they may be seen flitting from branch to branch, twittering and
-fluttering, and showing every evidence of enjoyment and perfect comfort. If
-one of them is captured it will be found in excellent condition; in fact, a
-veritable ball of fat.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 236px;">
-<a id="fig10" name="fig10"></a>
-<img src="images/fig10.png" width="236" height="274" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 10.</span>&mdash;Field sparrow. Length, about 5&frac12; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The snowbird<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> and tree sparrow<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> are perhaps the most numerous of all the
-sparrows. Examination of many stomachs shows that in winter the tree sparrow
-feeds entirely upon seeds of weeds.
-Probably each bird consumes about
-one-fourth of an ounce a day. In an
-article contributed in 1881 to the New
-York Tribune the writer estimated the
-amount of weed seed annually destroyed
-by these birds in Iowa. On
-the basis of one-fourth of an ounce
-of seed eaten daily by each bird, and
-an average of 10 birds to each square
-mile, remaining in their winter range
-200 days, there would be a total of
-1,750,000 pounds, or 875 tons of weed
-seed consumed in a single season by
-this one species. Large as are these
-figures, they unquestionably fall far
-short of the reality. The estimate of
-10 birds to a square mile is very conservative,
-for in Massachusetts, where
-the food supply is less than in the
-Western States, the tree sparrow is
-even more abundant than this in winter.
-The writer has known places in
-Iowa where several thousand tree sparrows
-could be seen within the space of a
-few acres. This estimate, moreover, is for a single species, while, as a matter of
-fact, there are at least half a dozen birds (not all sparrows) that habitually
-feed during winter on these seeds. Farther south the tree sparrow is replaced
-in winter by the white-throated sparrow,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> the white-crowned sparrow,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> the fox
-sparrow,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> the song sparrow, the field sparrow, and several others; so that all
-over the land a vast number of these seed eaters are at work during the colder
-months reducing next year&rsquo;s crop of worse than useless plants.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Junco hyemalis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> <i>Spizella monticola</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>Zonotrichia albicollis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Zonotrichia leucophrys</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Passerella iliaca</i>.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">« 11 »</a></span></p></div>
-
-
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="HOUSE_FINCH" id="HOUSE_FINCH">HOUSE FINCH</a></p>
-
-
-<p>Of all the sparrow groups, there is probably no member, unless it be the
-exotic form known as the English sparrow,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> that has by reason of Its food
-habits called down so many maledictions upon Its head as the house finch,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>
-red head, or linnet, as it is variously called. This bird, like the other members
-of its family, is by nature a seed eater, and before the beginning of fruit
-raising in California probably subsisted upon the seeds of weeds, with an occasional
-taste of some wild berry. Now, however, when orchards have extended
-throughout the length and breadth of the State and every month from May to
-December sees some ripening fruit, the linnets take their share. As their
-number Is legion, the sum total of the fruit that they destroy is more than the
-fruit raiser can well spare. As the bird has a stout beak, it has no difficulty
-in breaking the skin of the hardest fruit and feasting upon the pulp, thereby
-spoiling the fruit and giving weaker-billed birds a chance to sample and acquire
-a taste for what they might not otherwise have molested. Complaints against
-this bird have been many and loud, more especially in the years when fruit
-crops first came to be an important factor in the prosperity of the Pacific coast.
-At that time the various fruits afforded the linnets a new and easily obtained
-food, while cultivation had reduced their formerly abundant supply of weed
-seed. When the early fruit growers saw their expected golden harvest suddenly
-snatched away or at least much reduced in value by the little marauders,
-it is no wonder that they were exasperated and wished to destroy the authors
-of the mischief.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Passer domesticus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> <i>Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>In order to test the matter thoroughly and ascertain whether these birds
-ate any other kind of food that might to some extent offset the damage inflicted
-upon the fruit, the horticulturists and ornithologists of California were requested
-to secure a number of the stomachs of these birds and send them to the
-Biological Survey. An agent was also sent to the fruit-raising sections, who
-watched the birds in the orchards and collected a number of them. In this
-way 1,206 stomachs were obtained and carefully examined, and the result shows
-that animal food (insects) constituted 2.44 per cent and vegetable food 97.56
-per cent of the stomach contents, not counting gravel.</p>
-
-<p>So small a proportion of animal food can not, of course, mean a great
-destruction of insects. As these stomachs were collected in every month, with
-the greater number taken during the summer, it is evident that whatever good
-one may expect from the linnet must not be looked for in this direction.
-Unlike most of the sparrow family, the linnet does not feed its young upon
-Insects to any great extent. The contents of the stomachs of a number of
-nestlings were carefully examined, and the only animal food was found to
-consist of wooly plant lice. These also constituted the great bulk of the
-animal food eaten by adults.</p>
-
-<p>The vegetable food of the species consists of three principal items&mdash;grain,
-fruit, and weed seeds. Grain amounts to less than 1&frac12; per cent in August, which
-is the month of greatest consumption, and the average for the year is a trifle
-more than one-fourth of 1 per cent. Fruit attains its maximum in September,
-when it amounts to 27 per cent of the whole food, but the average for the year
-is only 10 per cent. The seeds of weeds constitute the bulk of the diet of the
-linnet, and in August, the month of least consumption, amount to about 64
-per cent of the food. The average for the year is 86 per cent.</p>
-
-<p>From the foregoing it is evident that whatever the linnet&rsquo;s sins may be,
-grain eating is not one of them. In view of the great complaint made against
-its fruit-eating habits, the small quantity found in the stomachs taken is somewhat
-of a surprise. But it must be remembered that the stomach contents do
-not tell the whole story. When a bird takes a single peck from a cherry or an
-apricot, it spoils the whole fruit, and in this way may ruin half a dozen in
-taking a single meal. It is safe to say that the fruit pulp found In the stomach
-does not represent more than one-fifth of what is actually destroyed. That
-the linnets are persistent and voracious eaters of early fruits, especially cherries
-and apricots, every fruit raiser hi California will bear testimony. That the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">« 12 »</a></span>
-damage is often serious no one will deny. It is noticeable, however, that the
-earliest varieties are the ones most affected; also, that in large orchards the
-damage is not perceptible, while in small plantations the whole crop is frequently
-destroyed.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_GRACKLES" id="THE_GRACKLES">THE GRACKLES.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>The crow blackbird or grackle<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> (<a href="#fig11">fig. 11</a>) in one or more of its subspecies is a
-familiar object in all the States east of the Rocky Mountains. Throughout
-the year it is resident as far north as southern Illinois, and in summer extends
-its range into the Canadian Provinces. In the Mississippi Valley it is one of
-the most abundant of birds, preferring to nest in the artificial groves and
-windbreaks near farms instead of in the natural &ldquo;timber&rdquo; which it formerly
-used. It breeds also in parks and near buildings, often in considerable colonies.
-Farther east, in New England, it is only locally abundant, though frequently
-seen in migration. In the latter days of August and throughout September it
-is found in immense numbers before moving southward.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Quiscalus quiscula</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 272px;">
-<a id="fig11" name="fig11"></a>
-<img src="images/fig11.png" width="272" height="199" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 11.</span>&mdash;Purple grackle. Length, about 12 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The grackle is accused of many sins, such as stealing grain and fruit and
-robbing the nests of other birds. An examination of 2,346 stomachs shows
-that nearly one-third of its food consists of insects, most of which are injurious.
-The bird also eats a few snails, crawfishes, salamanders, small fish, and occasionally
-a mouse. The stomach contents do not indicate that it robs other
-birds&rsquo; nests to any great extent, as
-remains of birds and birds&rsquo; eggs
-amount to less than half of 1
-per cent.</p>
-
-<p>It is on account of its vegetable
-food that the grackle most deserves
-condemnation. Grain is eaten during
-the whole year, and only for
-a short time in summer is other
-food attractive enough to induce
-the bird to alter its diet. The
-grain taken in winter and spring
-probably consists of waste kernels
-from stubble. The stomachs do not
-indicate that the bird pulls sprouting
-grain; but the wheat eaten in
-July and August and the corn eaten
-in the fall are probably from fields
-of standing grain. The total
-amount of grain consumed during
-the year constitutes 45 per cent of the food, but it is safe to say that at least
-half is waste grain and consequently of no value. Although the crow blackbird
-eats a few cherries and blackberries in their season, and in the fall some
-wild fruit, it apparently does no damage in this way.</p>
-
-<p>Large flocks of grackles no doubt do considerable injury to grain crops, and
-there seems to be no remedy, except the destruction of the birds, which is in
-itself expensive. During the breeding season, however, the species does much
-good by eating insects and by feeding them to its young, which are reared
-almost entirely upon this food. The bird does the greatest amount of good in
-spring, when it follows the plow in search of large grubworms, of which it is
-so fond that it sometimes literally crams its stomach full of them.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="BREWER_BLACKBIRD" id="BREWER_BLACKBIRD">BREWER BLACKBIRD.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>The Brewer blackbird<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> takes the place in the Western States of the grackle,
-or crow blackbird, which lives in the Mississippi Valley and farther east and is
-very similar in appearance and habits. It breeds east to the Great Plains and
-north into Canada, and winters over most of its breeding range in the United
-States and south to Guatemala. At home in fields, meadows, and orchards, and
-about ranch buildings and cultivated lands generally, it nests in bushes and
-weeds, sometimes in trees, and is very gregarious, especially about barnyards
-and corrals. The bird feeds freely in stockyards and in cultivated fields, and
-when fruit is ripe does not hesitate to take a share During the cherry season
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">« 13 »</a></span>
-in California the birds are much in the orchards. In one case they were
-observed feeding on cherries, but when a neighboring fruit grower began to
-plow his orchard almost every blackbird in the vicinity was upon the newly
-opened ground close after the plowman&rsquo;s heels in its eagerness to secure the
-insects turned up.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Euphagus cyanocephalus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>The laboratory investigation of this bird&rsquo;s food covered 312 stomachs, collected
-in every month and representing especially the fruit and grain sections
-of southern California. The animal portion of the food was 32 per cent and
-the vegetable 68 per cent.</p>
-
-<p>Caterpillars and their pupæ amounted to 12 per cent of the whole food and
-were eaten every month. They include many of those pests known as cutworms.
-The cotton-boll worm, or corn-ear worm, was identified in at least 10 stomachs,
-and in 11 were found pupæ of the codling moth. The animal food also included
-other insects, and spiders, sow bugs, snails, and eggshells.</p>
-
-<p>The vegetable food may be divided into fruit, grain, and weed seeds. Fruit
-was eaten in May, June, and July, not a trace appearing in any other month,
-and was composed of cherries, or what was thought to be such, strawberries,
-blackberries or raspberries, and fruit pulp or skins not further identified.
-However, the amount, a little more than 4 per cent for the year, was too small
-to make a bad showing, and if the bird does no greater harm than is involved
-in its fruit eating it is well worth protecting. Grain amounts to 54 per cent
-of the yearly food and forms a considerable percentage in each month; oats
-are the favorite and were the sole contents of 14 stomachs, and wheat of 2, but
-no stomach was completely filled with any other grain. Weed seeds, eaten in
-every month to the extent of 9 per cent of the food, were found in rather small
-quantities and irregularly, and appear to have been merely a makeshift.</p>
-
-<p>Stomachs of nestlings, varying in age from 24 hours to some that were nearly
-fledged, were found to contain 89 per cent animal to 11 per cent vegetable matter.
-The largest items in the former
-were caterpillars, grasshoppers, and
-spiders. In the latter the largest
-items were fruit, probably cherries;
-grain, mostly oats; and rubbish.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="BALTIMORE_ORIOLE" id="BALTIMORE_ORIOLE">BALTIMORE ORIOLE.</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 248px;">
-<a id="fig12" name="fig12"></a>
-<img src="images/fig12.png" width="248" height="175" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 12.</span>&mdash;Baltimore oriole. Length, about
-7&frac12; Inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Brilliancy of plumage, sweetness
-of song, and food habits to which no
-exception can be taken are some of
-the striking characteristics of the
-Baltimore oriole<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> (<a href="#fig12">fig. 12</a>). In summer
-it is found throughout the northern
-half of the United States east of
-the Great Plains. Its nest commands
-hardly less admiration than the
-beauty of its plumage or the excellence of its song. Hanging from the tip of
-the outermost bough of a stately elm, it is almost inaccessible to depredators
-and so strongly fastened as to bid defiance to the elements.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>Icterus galbula</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Observation both in the field and laboratory shows that caterpillars constitute
-the largest item of the fare of the oriole. In 204 stomachs they formed 34
-per cent of the food, and they are eaten in varying quantities during all the
-months in which the bird remains in this country. The fewest are eaten in
-July, when a little fruit also is taken. The other insects consist of beetles, bugs,
-ants, wasps, grasshoppers, and some spiders. The beetles are principally click
-beetles, the larvæ of which are among the most destructive insects known; and
-the bugs include plant and bark lice, both very harmful, but so small and
-obscure as to be passed over unnoticed by most birds. Ants are eaten mostly
-in spring, grasshoppers in July and August, and wasps and spiders with considerable
-regularity throughout the season.</p>
-
-<p>During the stay of the oriole in the United States, vegetable matter amounts
-to only a little more than 16 per cent of its food, so that the possibility of its
-doing much damage to crops is very limited. The bird is accused of eating peas
-to a considerable extent, but remains of such were found in only two cases.
-One writer says that it damages grapes, but none were found in the stomachs.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">« 14 »</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="BULLOCK_ORIOLE" id="BULLOCK_ORIOLE">BULLOCK ORIOLE.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>The Bullock oriole<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> is practically a counterpart of the Baltimore oriole,
-taking the place of that species west of the Plains and throughout the Pacific
-coast region. It does not essentially differ in its habits of nesting or in its food
-from its eastern relative, but it is less beautiful in plumage. The examination
-of 162 stomachs shows that 79 per cent of its food consists of insects, with a few
-spiders, a lizard, a mollusk shell, and eggshells. Beetles amounted to 35 per
-cent, and all except a few ladybugs were harmful species. Ants were found in
-19 stomachs, and in one there was nothing else. Bees, wasps, etc., were in 56
-stomachs, and entirely filled 2 of them. Including the ants, they amount to
-nearly 15 per cent of the food of the season.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>Icterus bullocki</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>One of the most interesting articles of food in the oriole&rsquo;s dietary was the
-black olive scale, found in 45 stomachs, and amounting to 5 per cent of the
-food. In several cases these scales formed 80 per cent or more of the contents,
-and in one, 30 individual scales could be counted. They were evidently a
-standard article of diet, and were eaten regularly in every month of the oriole&rsquo;s
-stay except April. Hemipterous insects other than scales, eaten quite regularly,
-make up a little more than 5 per cent of the food. They were mostly
-stinkbugs, leaf hoppers, and tree hoppers. Plant lice were found in one stomach.</p>
-
-<p>Moths, pupæ, and caterpillars compose the largest item of the oriole&rsquo;s animal
-food; the average consumption during its summer stay Is a little more than
-41 per cent. Of these, perhaps the most interesting were the pupæ and larvæ
-of the codling moth. These were found in 23 stomachs, showing that they are
-not an unusual article of diet. No less than 14 of the pupal cases were found
-in one stomach, and as they are very fragile many others may have been present,
-but broken beyond recognition.</p>
-
-<p>Grasshoppers probably do not come much in the oriole&rsquo;s way. They were
-eaten, however; to the extent of a little more than 3 per cent. But in spite of
-the fact that grasshoppers are eaten so sparingly, 2 stomachs, both taken in
-June, contained nothing else, and another contained 97 per cent of them.</p>
-
-<p>Various insects and spiders, with a few other items, make up the rest of the
-animal food, a little more than 5 per cent. Spiders are not important in the
-oriole&rsquo;s food, but are probably eaten whenever found. They were identified in
-44 stomachs, but in small numbers. The scales of a lizard were found in one
-stomach and the shell of a snail in another.</p>
-
-<p>The vegetable contingent of the oriole&rsquo;s food is mostly fruit, especially in
-June and July, when it takes kindly to cherries and apricots, and sometimes
-eats more than the fruit grower considers a fair share. However, no great
-complaint is made against the bird, and it is probable that as a rule it does not
-do serious harm. With such a good record as an insect eater it can well be
-spared a few cherries.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_MEADOWLARKS" id="THE_MEADOWLARKS">THE MEADOWLARKS.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>The eastern meadowlark<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> (<a href="#fig13">fig. 13</a>) is a common and well-known bird occurring
-from the Atlantic coast to the Great Plains, where it gives way to the
-closely related western species,<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> which extends thence westward to the Pacific.
-It winters from our southern border as far north as the District of Columbia,
-southern Illinois, and occasionally Iowa. The western, form winters somewhat
-farther north. Although it is a bird of the plains, and finds its most congenial
-haunts in the prairies of the West, it is at home wherever there is level or
-undulating land covered with grass or weeds, with plenty of water at hand.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>Sturnella magna</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>Sturnella neglecta</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>In the 1,514 stomachs examined, animal food (practically all insects) constituted
-74 per cent of the contents and vegetable matter 26 per cent. As would
-naturally be supposed, the insects were ground species, as beetles, bugs, grasshoppers,
-and caterpillars, with a few flies, wasps, and spiders. A number of the
-stomachs were collected when the ground was covered with snow, but even
-these contained a large percentage of insects, showing the bird&rsquo;s skill in finding
-proper food under adverse circumstances.</p>
-
-<p>Of the various insects eaten, crickets and grasshoppers are the most important,
-constituting 26 per cent of the food of the year and 72 per cent of the
-food in August. It is scarcely necessary to mention the beneficial effect of a
-number of these birds on a field of grass in the height of the grasshopper season.
-Of the 1,514 stomachs collected at all seasons of the year, 778, or more than
-half, contained remains of grasshoppers, and one was filled with fragments of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">« 15 »</a></span>
-37 of these insects. This seems to show conclusively that grasshoppers are
-preferred, and are eaten whenever they can be found. Especially notable
-is the great number taken in August, the month when grasshoppers reach their
-maximum abundance; stomach examination shows that large numbers of birds
-resort at this time to this diet, no matter what may be the food during the
-rest of the year.</p>
-
-<p>Next to grasshoppers, beetles make up the most important item of the
-meadowlark&rsquo;s food, amounting to 25 per cent, about one-half of which are predacious
-ground beetles. The others are all harmful species.</p>
-
-<p>Forty-two individuals of different kinds of May beetles were found in the
-stomachs of meadowlarks, and there were probably many more which were
-past recognition. To this form and several closely allied ones belong the
-numerous white grubs, which are among the worst enemies to many cultivated
-crops, notably grasses and grains, and to a less extent strawberries and garden
-vegetables. In the larval stage they eat the roots of these plants, and being
-large, one individual may destroy several plants. In the adult stage they feed
-upon the foliage of trees and other plants, and in this way add to the damage
-which they began in the earlier form. As these enemies of husbandry are not
-easily destroyed by man, it is obviously wise to encourage their natural foes.</p>
-
-<p>Among the weevils found in the stomachs the most important economically
-are the cotton-boll weevil and the recently introduced alfalfa weevil of Utah.
-Several hundred meadowlarks were taken in the cotton-growing region, and
-the boll weevil was found in 25 stomachs of the eastern meadowlark and in 16
-of the western species. Of the former, one stomach contained 27 individuals.
-Of 25 stomachs of western meadowlarks
-taken in alfalfa fields of Utah,
-15 contained the alfalfa weevil. In
-one stomach 23 adults were found,
-in another 32 adults and 70 larvæ,
-still another had 10 adults and 40
-larvæ, and a fourth had 4 adults
-and 100 larvæ.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 277px;">
-<a id="fig13" name="fig13"></a>
-<img src="images/fig13.png" width="277" height="166" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 13.</span>&mdash;Meadowlark. Length, about 10 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Caterpillars form a very constant
-element of the food, and in May
-constitute over 24 per cent of the
-whole. May is the month when the
-dreaded cutworm begins Its deadly
-career, and then the lark does some
-of its best work. Most of these
-caterpillars are ground feeders,
-and are overlooked by birds which
-habitually frequent trees, but the meadowlark finds and devours them
-by thousands. The remainder of the insect food is made up of ants, wasps,
-and spiders, with some bugs, including chinch bugs, and a few scales.</p>
-
-<p>The vegetable food consists of grain and weed and other hard seeds. Grain
-in general amounts to 11 per cent and weed and other seeds to 7 per cent.
-Grain, principally corn, is eaten mostly in winter and early spring and consists,
-therefore, of waste kernels; only a trifle is consumed in summer and
-autumn, when it is most plentiful. No trace of sprouting grain was discovered.
-Glover seed was found in only six stomachs, and but little in each. Seeds of
-weeds, principally ragweed, barnyard grass, and smartweed, are eaten from November
-to April, inclusive, but during the rest of the year are replaced by insects.</p>
-
-<p>Briefly stated, more than half of the meadowlark&rsquo;s food consists of harmful
-insects; its vegetable food is composed either of noxious weeds or waste grain;
-and the remainder is made up of useful beetles or neutral insects and spiders.
-A strong point in the bird&rsquo;s favor is that, although naturally an insect eater, it
-is able to subsist on vegetable food, and consequently is not forced to migrate
-in cold weather farther than is necessary to find ground free from snow.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a id="RED-WINGED_BLACKBIRDS" name="RED-WINGED_BLACKBIRDS"></a>THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS.</p>
-
-
-<p>The red-winged or swamp blackbird<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> in its various forms (<a href="#fig14">fig. 14</a>) is found
-all over the United States and the region immediately to the north. While
-common in most of its range, its distribution is more or less local, mainly on
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">« 16 »</a></span>
-account of its partiality for marshes. It builds its nest over or near standing
-water, in tall grass, rushes, or bushes. Owing to this peculiarity the bird may
-be absent from large tracts of country which afford no swamps or marshes
-suitable for nesting. It usually breeds in large colonies, though single families,
-consisting of a male and several females, may sometimes be found in a small
-slough, where each female builds her nest and rears her own little brood. While
-her liege lord displays his brilliant colors and struts in the sunshine. In the
-upper Mississippi Valley the species finds most favorable conditions, for the
-countless prairie sloughs and the margins of the numerous shallow lakes afford
-nesting sites for thousands of red-wings; and here are bred the immense flocks
-which sometimes do so much damage to the grain fields of the West. After the
-breeding season the birds congregate preparatory to migration, and remain
-thus associated throughout the winter.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Agelaius ph&oelig;niceus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Three species and several subspecies of red-wings are recognized,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> but practically
-no difference exists in the habits of these forms either in nesting or
-feeding, except such as may result from local conditions. Most of the forms are
-found on the Pacific side of the continent, and may be considered as included in
-the following statements as to food and economic status.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Agelaius ph&oelig;niceus (8 forms), Agelaius gubernator, and Agelaius tricolor.</p></div>
-
-<p>Many complaints have been made against the red-wing, and several States
-have at times placed a bounty upon its head. It is said to cause great damage
-to grain in the West, especially in the upper Mississippi Valley, but few complaints
-come from the northeastern
-section, where the bird is much
-less abundant than in the West
-and South.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 270px;">
-<a id="fig14" name="fig14"></a>
-<img src="images/fig14.png" width="270" height="240" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 14.</span>&mdash;Red-winged blackbird. Length, about
-9&frac12; Inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Examination of 1,083 stomachs
-showed that vegetable matter
-forms 74 per cent of the food,
-while animal matter, mainly Insects,
-forms but 26 per cent A
-little more than 10 per cent consists
-of beetles, mostly harmful
-species. Weevils, or snout beetles,
-amount to 4 per cent of the year&rsquo;s
-food, but in June reach 25 per cent.
-As weevils are among the most
-harmful insects known, their destruction
-should condone some, at
-least, of the sins of which the
-bird is accused. Grasshoppers
-constitute nearly 5 per cent of the
-food, while the rest of the animal
-matter is made up of various
-insects, a few snails, and crustaceans.
-The few dragon flies found were probably picked up dead, for they
-are too active to be taken alive, unless by a bird of the flycatcher family. So
-far as the insect food as a whole is concerned, the red-wing may be considered
-entirely beneficial.</p>
-
-<p>The interest in the vegetable food of this bird centers around grain. Only
-three kinds, corn, wheat, and oats, were found in the stomachs in appreciable
-quantities. They aggregate but little more than 13 per cent of the whole food,
-oats forming nearly half of this amount. Field investigation has shown, however,
-that, when local conditions are favorable, large flocks of red-wings may
-do considerable damage. Conspicuous among such cases are the losses suffered
-by farmers to sweet corn in some of the northeastern States and to milo in the
-South and West. In the rather limited grain-raising area of the Imperial
-Valley of California the annual damage to milo alone by enormous flocks of
-red-wings and yellow-headed blackbirds has been estimated to be fully $50,000.
-The most important item of the bird&rsquo;s food, however, is weed seed, which forms
-practically all of its food in winter and about 57 per cent of the fare of the
-whole year. The principal weed seeds eaten are those of ragweed, barnyard
-grass, and smartweed. That these seeds are preferred is shown by the fact
-that the birds begin to eat them in August, when grain is still readily obtainable,
-and continue feeding on them even after insects become plentiful in April.
-The red-wing eats very little fruit and does practically no harm to garden or
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">« 17 »</a></span>
-orchard. It is apparent that where moderately abundant, the red-wing does
-more good than harm, but in sections where it becomes excessively abundant
-a reduction in its numbers is justifiable.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="BOBOLINK" id="BOBOLINK">BOBOLINK.</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 262px;">
-<a id="fig15" name="fig15"></a>
-<img src="images/fig15.png" width="262" height="254" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 15.</span>&mdash;Bobolink, ricebird, or reed bird.
-Length, about 7 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The bobolink, ricebird, or reedbird<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> (<a href="#fig15">fig. 15</a>) is a common summer resident
-of the United States, north of about latitude 40°, and from New England westward
-to the Great Plains, wintering beyond our southern border. In New
-England there are few birds about which so much romance clusters as this
-rollicking songster, naturally associated with sunny June meadows; but in the
-South there are none on whose head so many maledictions have been heaped
-on account of its fondness for rice. During its sojourn in the Northern States
-it feeds mainly upon insects and
-seeds of useless plants; but while
-rearing its young, insects constitute
-its chief food, and almost the exclusive
-diet of its brood. After the
-young are able to fly, the whole family
-gathers into a small flock and
-begins to live almost entirely upon
-vegetable food. This consists for
-the most part of weed seeds, since
-In the North these birds do not appear
-to attack grain to any great
-extent. They eat a few oats, but their
-stomachs do not reveal a great quantity
-of this or any other grain. As
-the season advances they gather into
-larger flocks and move southward,
-until by the end of August nearly all
-have left their breeding grounds. On
-their way they frequent the reedy
-marshes about the mouths of rivers
-and on the inland waters of the coast
-region and subsist largely upon wild
-rice. In the Middle States, during their southward migration, they are commonly
-known as reedbirds, and, becoming very fat, are treated as game.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Dolichonyx oryzivorus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Formerly, when the low marshy shores of the Carolinas and some of the
-more southern States were devoted to rice culture the bobolinks made great
-havoc both upon the sprouting rice in spring and upon the ripening grain on
-their return migration in the fall. While the damage is not so great as when
-this region was the center of rice production, still it amounts to many thousands
-of dollars annually. As a remedy, an open season on ricebirds was provided
-in the Coast States from New Jersey to Florida.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="CROW" id="CROW">CROW.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>In one or another of its geographic races the common crow<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> (<a href="#fig16">fig. 16</a>) breeds
-in great numbers throughout the States east of the Plains and from the Gulf
-well up into Canada, while in less abundance it is found in California and in
-the Northwestern States. During the colder months a southern migratory
-movement brings most of these birds within the borders of the United States,
-and at about the latitude of Philadelphia and southern Illinois we find them
-congregating nightly in roosts. Farmers dwelling in the vicinity of such roosts
-frequently suffer losses to shocked corn.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Corvus brachyrhynchos</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>In fact, none of our native birds so much concerns the average farmer of the
-Eastern States as the common crow. Many of our present criticisms of this
-bird, as its pulling sprouting corn, feeding on ripening ears, damaging fruits of
-various kinds, destroying poultry and wild birds, and disseminating diseases
-of live-stock, were common complaints in the days of the early colonists. Many
-of the virtues of the crow, now quite generally recognized, also have been
-matters of record for many years. In recent times, however, scientific study
-of these problems, including the examination of the stomachs of hundreds of
-crows secured in every month of the year and under a variety of conditions,
-has enabled us to render a much fairer verdict than was formerly possible.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">« 18 »</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The crow is practically omnivorous. During spring and early summer any
-form of insect life seems to make a desirable item in its diet, and in winter
-when hard pressed nothing in the animal or vegetable kingdoms which contains
-a morsel of nutriment is overlooked.</p>
-
-<p>The insect food of the crow, which comprises about a fifth of its yearly
-sustenance, does much to atone for its misdemeanors. Grasshoppers, May
-beetles and their larvæ (white grubs), caterpillars, weevils, and wireworms
-stand out prominently. In 1,340 stomachs of adults examined these highly Injurious
-forms comprised over 80 per cent of the insect food. Grasshoppers are
-naturally taken in greatest abundance late in the season. September being the
-month of largest consumption, when they form about a fifth of the total food.
-May beetles and white grubs are eaten in every month, but occur most
-prominently in May. In June caterpillars are a favorite food, and weevils of
-various kinds are taken in varying quantities throughout summer and fall.
-About half of the remaining 20 per cent of insect food is composed of beneficial
-ground beetles, ladybirds, predacious bugs, and parasitic wasps, and related
-forms, the rest consisting of neutral or injurious forms. Numerous instances
-are on record where fields badly infested with white grubs or grasshoppers
-have been favorite resorts of crows, whose voracity has resulted in a material
-suppression of the pest. When the amount of food required to sustain the
-individual crow is considered, the work of these birds appears all the more
-important Single stomachs containing
-upward of 50 grasshoppers
-are not uncommon. Thus in
-its choice of insect food the crow
-is rendering an important service
-to the farmer.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 279px;">
-<a id="fig16" name="fig16"></a>
-<img src="images/fig16.png" width="279" height="194" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 16.</span>&mdash;Crow. Length, about 19 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the other animal food of
-the crow are several items of
-the utmost economic importance.
-Spiders are taken in considerable
-numbers in May and June,
-but the yearly total is a little
-over 1 per cent of the food.
-In early spring crawfish are
-eagerly sought, and other aquatic
-food, as fish and mollusks, lend
-variety to the crow&rsquo;s bill of
-fare the year round. In the consumption
-of toads, salamanders,
-frogs, and some snakes, which together compose a little over 2 per cent of the
-yearly food, the crow is doubtless doing harm. Small rodents occurred in the
-stomachs collected nearly every month, but it Is often difficult to determine
-whether small mammals found in birds&rsquo; stomachs were taken alive or found dead.</p>
-
-<p>From its carrion-eating habits the crow has been unfairly criticized as a
-disseminator of live-stock diseases. While this may be to some extent just, the
-fact that there are many other important carriers which lie largely beyond our
-control, shows that we must seek final relief only through the strictest methods
-of sanitation.</p>
-
-<p>The nest-robbing habit of the crow, long a serious criticism, is verified by
-stomach analysis. Of the 1,103 crows examined, 47 had fed on wild birds or
-their eggs, and the eggs of domestic fowls were found somewhat more frequently.
-The crow&rsquo;s habit of rummaging about garbage piles may explain
-much of this latter material.</p>
-
-<p>Of the vegetable food, corn, which is eaten every month, is the most important
-item and forms about 38 per cent of the diet. Much of this, however,
-must be considered waste, since over 60 per cent of it is consumed from the first
-of November to the end of March. During the periods when corn is sprouting
-and when in the &ldquo;roasting-ear&rdquo; stage the crow is eating this grain at a rate
-considerably less than the yearly average, and the months of smallest consumption
-are July and August. At times, however, the damage to corn becomes a
-serious problem, and were it not possible to make use of such deterrents as coal
-tar upon seed corn there would be little friendship for the crow in some sections
-of the East. The &ldquo;pulling&rdquo; of corn is a trait most prevalent in small-field
-areas. Wheat and oats suffer similar damage at times, especially in the
-Northwestern States, where these grains predominate. About the only safeguard
-to ripening grain is the constant use of powder and shot or the scarecrow.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">« 19 »</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Various kinds of cultivated fruits are also eaten, and local damage to such
-crops as apples, melons, peas, beans, peanuts, and almonds is occasionally reported.
-In long, rigorous winters, the crow, like other birds, resorts to the
-fruit of numerous wild plants, as dogwood, sour gum, hackberry, smilax, and the
-several species of sumac and poison ivy.</p>
-
-<p>Damage to the eggs of poultry may be reduced to a minimum by careful
-housing of lasting hens, and the farmer can protect his sprouting grain to a
-large extent by the use of tar-coated seed. It will be well also to keep the
-crow within reasonable numbers on game preserves and public parks where it
-is desired to encourage the nesting of smaller birds. While legal protection is
-not needed for so wary an individual as the crow, it seems well, where local
-conditions have not aggravated some particular shortcomings of the bird, to
-allow it to continue the good services gendered to man in the destruction of
-noxious insects.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="BLUE_JAY" id="BLUE_JAY">BLUE JAY.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>The blue jay<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> (<a href="#fig17">fig. 17</a>) is a conspicuous member of our bird population east
-of the Plains, especially in autumn when his brilliant plumage contrasts vividly
-with the brown> foliage. Even in winter he stays with us, though at this time
-he is less common along our northern border. In spring and summer, while by
-no means uncommon, the blue jay is not so often noticed, as the retiring disposition
-which he assumes during the breeding season assists in protecting him
-from enemies. This also allows him to carry on with considerable impunity
-that inglorious practice of nest robbing
-of which, in a measure, he has
-been rightfully accused.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Cyanocitta cristata</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 257px;">
-<a id="fig17" name="fig17"></a>
-<img src="images/fig17.png" width="257" height="170" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 17.</span>&mdash;Blue Jay. Length, about 11&frac12; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Examination of 530 stomachs collected
-at all times of the year in 30
-of our Eastern States and Canada
-shows that insects comprise about
-22 per cent of the yearly sustenance.
-About three-fourths of these are injurious,
-the remainder being neutral
-or beneficial. Of the injurious insects,
-grasshoppers form the largest
-portion; in August nearly a fifth of
-the food. Caterpillars are conspicuous
-in July and August and at this
-time average about a tenth of the
-stomach contents. Both laboratory
-investigations and field observations have established the fact that in winter the
-eggs of the tent caterpillar and the hibernating larvæ of the brown-tail moth in
-New England are eagerly sought Scarabæid beetles form about 4 per cent of
-the yearly food, and click beetles and wire-worms about 1 per cent. Of the
-beneficial forms, ground beetles (3 per cent) and hymenopterous insects, part
-of which are parasitic (2.5 per cent), are taken most frequently. A few other
-invertebrates, as spiders, millipedes, mollusks, and crustaceans, also are eaten
-throughout the year.</p>
-
-<p>In the consideration of the vertebrate food of the blue jay we are confronted
-with the problem of the destruction of wild birds and their eggs. Special
-search was made for every possible trace of such material in the stomachs,
-and in 6 of the 530 were found the remains of wild birds or their eggs. In
-February two jays had killed a small bird apiece; in May one had robbed a
-nest of eggs; in June two had taken a small bird and a clutch of eggs, respectively;
-and in August another had robbed a nest As this trait of the jay appears
-to be most pronounced during its own breeding season, it is quite possible
-for many birds which have suffered from its boldness early in the season to raise
-another brood unmolested. Thirty-nine of the 530 jays examined had fed
-on hen&rsquo;s eggs. Much of this food, however, was picked up about rubbish heaps,
-to which the jay, like other members of the crow family, is partial. While
-the result of stomach analysis would appear to belittle this fault of the blue
-jay, it is doubtless quite characteristic of the bird under favorable conditions.</p>
-
-<p>Complaint that the jay is the source of considerable damage to corn in the
-fall has been verified to a certain degree by stomach examination. This grain
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">« 20 »</a></span>
-is taken in every month of the year, but in greater quantities during winter and
-early spring, when much of it is necessarily waste, and it forms about 18 per
-cent of the yearly food. Cultivated fruits of various kinds are eaten from
-June to the end of the year, and the 15 per cent taken in July apparently justifies
-complaints against the bird on this score. The favorite vegetable food of the
-blue jay is mast of various kinds, acorns predominating, but beechnuts, chestnuts,
-chinquaquins, and hazelnuts also are relished. This food is important in
-every month but July and August, the yearly average being over 43 per cent,
-and from October to March it constitutes about two-thirds of the diet. Occasionally
-harm is done by feeding also on cultivated nuts, as pecans. Wild fruits
-are eaten during the summer and fall and constitute about 7 per cent of the
-yearly sustenance.</p>
-
-<p>The blue jay probably renders its best services to man in destroying grasshoppers
-late in the season and in feeding on hibernating insects and their eggs,
-as it does in the case of the tent caterpillar and brown-tail moth. Such forest
-insects as buprestid beetles and weevils of various kinds also fall as its prey.</p>
-
-<p>The blue jay&rsquo;s vegetable food, with the exception of some cultivated fruit and
-corn in the fall, is largely neutral. The severest criticism against the species
-is the destruction of other birds and their eggs. Where we wish to attract birds
-in large numbers about our dooryards, in our parks, and in game preserves, it
-will be well not to allow the jays to become too abundant.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="PACIFIC_COAST_JAYS" id="PACIFIC_COAST_JAYS">PACIFIC COAST JAYS.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>In California and adjacent States two species of jays are much in evidence
-under several more or less well-marked forms.</p>
-
-<p>The Steller jay<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> much resembles the eastern bird, but it is more shy and
-retiring and seldom visits the orchard or vicinity of the ranch buildings.
-Stomach examination shows that its food does not radically differ from that of
-the eastern blue jay. As is the case with that bird, a very considerable part
-of the food consists of mast, together with a little fruit and some insects. The
-insects are largely wasps, with some beetles and grasshoppers. This jay also
-eats some grain, which is probably waste or volunteer. No complaints, so far
-as known, are made against this bird. Until it shall become less wary it is not
-likely to trespass to a serious extent upon the farmer&rsquo;s preserve.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Cyanocitta stelleri</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>The California jay,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> although of a different genus, more nearly resembles its
-eastern relative in food habits and actions. It freely visits the stockyards near
-ranch buildings, and orchards and gardens. As a fruit stealer it is notorious.
-One instance is recorded where seven jays were shot from a prune tree, one
-after the other, the dead bodies being left under the tree until all were killed.
-So eager were the birds to get the fruit that the report of the gun and the sight
-of their dead did not deter them from coming to the tree. In orchards in
-canyons or on hillsides adjacent to chaparral or other cover great mischief is
-done by this bird. In one such case an orchard was under observation at a time
-when the prune crop was ripening, and jays in a continuous stream were seen
-to come down a small ravine to the orchard, prey upon the fruit, and return.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Aphelocoma californica</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Fruit stealing, however, is only one of the sins of the California jay. That
-it robs hens&rsquo; nests is universal testimony. A case is reported of a hen having
-a nest under a clump of bushes; every day a jay came to a tree a few rods away,
-and when it heard the cackle of the hen announcing a new egg it flew at once
-to the nest. At the same time the mistress of the house hastened to the spot
-to secure the prize, but in most cases the jay won the race. This is only one of
-many similar cases recounted. The jays have learned just what the cackle of
-the hen means. Another case more serious is that related by a man engaged
-in raising white leghorn fowls on a ranch several miles up a canyon. He
-stated that when the chicks were very young the jays attacked and killed
-them by a few blows of the beak and then pecked open the skull and ate out
-the brains. In spite of all efforts to protect the chicks and kill the jays the
-losses in this way were serious.</p>
-
-<p>Examination of the stomachs of 326 California jays shows that 27 per cent
-of the contents for the year consists of animal matter and 73 per cent of vegetable.
-Although the great bulk of the animal food is made up of insects, the
-remains of eggshells and birds&rsquo; bones appear much too often. The insect food
-is fairly well distributed among the more common orders, but grasshoppers are
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">« 21 »</a></span>
-slightly the most numerous and constitute 4.5 per cent of the year&rsquo;s food. In
-July, August, and September, however, the amount is 14, 18, and 19 per cent,
-respectively. Four per cent of the food consists of wasps, bees, etc., but in the
-three months named they constitute 15, 7, and 9 per cent, respectively. A
-worker honeybee found in each of two stomachs is rather surprising, for it is
-unusual to find a bird like the jay eating these active and elusive insects,
-which enter into the diet of the flycatchers. The remainder of the insect
-food is pretty evenly distributed among beetles, bugs, flies, and caterpillars.
-Eggshells were found in 21 stomachs and birds&rsquo; bones in 5. Six stomachs
-contained the bones of mammals and two those of a lizard. No bird has a
-worse reputation for nest robbing than has the eastern jay, and yet of 530
-stomachs of the eastern species only 6 contained eggshells or the bones of
-birds. This comparison serves to show what a marauder and nest thief the
-California jay really is.</p>
-
-<p>In its vegetable diet this bird much resembles its eastern relative, the most
-remarkable difference being in the matter of fruit eating. With greater opportunities
-the California bird has developed a greater appetite for fruit and
-indulges it to the fullest extent. Remains of fruit were found in 220 of the 326
-stomachs. The percentage for the year is only 16, but for the four months of
-June, July, August, and September it is 44, 33, 53, and 25, respectively. Cherries,
-apricots, and prunes are the favorites among cultivated fruits, and elderberries
-are relished to some extent. Grain, which was found in 48 stomachs,
-amounts to 6 per cent of the food of the year. Practically all of it was taken
-in the four months above mentioned, but it is not probable that much damage
-is done by the jay in this respect. The major portion of the grain was oats.
-What was not wild was probably simply scattered grain gleaned after the
-harvest. Mast is eaten by the California jay from September to March, inclusive,
-and constitutes during most of that period one of the principal elements of
-its food. In this respect the bird shows a remarkable similarity to the eastern
-species. A few weed seeds and other miscellaneous items make up the balance
-of the vegetable food.</p>
-
-<p>In summing up from an economic point of view the character of the food
-of the California jay, it must be conceded that it is not all that could be wished.
-Its taste for birds&rsquo; eggs and fruit is entirely too pronounced, and at present the
-species is superabundant in California. While the natural food supply of the
-bird has been lessened by bringing the woods and brushy canyons under cultivation,
-the same areas have been planted to fruit, and naturally the jay takes
-the fruit as an acceptable substitute. A considerable reduction of the bird&rsquo;s
-numbers would appear to be the only effective remedy.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_PHOEBES" id="THE_PHOEBES">THE PH&OElig;BES.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>Among the early spring arrivals to their northern homes none is more welcome
-than the ph&oelig;be (<a href="#fig18">fig. 18</a>). The common ph&oelig;be<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> breeds throughout the
-United States east of the Great Plains, and winters from the South Atlantic
-and Gulf States southward. Its western relative, the black ph&oelig;be,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> is found
-from Texas west to the Pacific coast, which it occupies as far north as Washington,
-replacing through most of this region the common or eastern form.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Sayornis ph&oelig;be</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <i>Sayornis Nigricans</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Though naturally building its nest under an overhanging cliff of rock or
-earth, or in the mouth of a cave, the preference of the eastern species for the
-vicinity of farm buildings is so marked that in the more thickly settled parts
-of the country the bird is seldom seen at any great distance from a farmhouse,
-except where a bridge spanning a stream affords a secure spot for a nest. Its
-confiding disposition renders it a great favorite, and consequently it is seldom
-disturbed.</p>
-
-<p>The ph&oelig;be subsists almost exclusively upon insects, most of which are caught
-upon the wing. An examination of 370 stomachs showed that over 89 per cent
-of the year&rsquo;s food consists of insects and spiders, while wild fruit constitutes
-the remainder. The insects belong chiefly to noxious species, and include many
-click beetles. May beetles, and weevils. Other beetles, belonging to 21 families
-that were identified, make up 10.65 per cent. They appear to be eaten very
-regularly in every month, but the most are taken in spring and early summer.
-May is the month of maximum consumption, with 20.43 per cent. Beetles altogether
-amount to 15.3 per cent, which places them second in rank of the items
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">« 22 »</a></span>
-of animal food. The notorious cotton-boll weevil was found in six stomachs
-taken in the cotton fields of Texas and Louisiana, and five individuals of the
-strawberry weevil were taken from one collected in Texas. Many other beetles
-contained In the stomachs are equally harmful, but are not so widely known.
-Such are the corn leaf-beetle, which feeds upon corn; the 12-spotted cucumber
-beetle, and the striped cucumber beetle, both of which seriously injure and
-sometimes destroy cucumber and squash vines; and the locust leaf miner,
-which is sometimes so numerous that all the locust trees over large areas are
-blasted as by fire.</p>
-
-<p>In the ph&oelig;be&rsquo;s diet hymenopterous insects stand at the head, as is the case
-with most of the flycatchers. They are eaten with great regularity and are
-the largest item in nearly every month. A few are useful parasitic species,
-but these are offset by a number of sawfly larvæ, which are very harmful
-insects. Ants were found in 24 stomachs. No honeybees were identified. In
-their season grasshoppers are much relished, while wasps of various forms,
-many flies of species that annoy cattle, and a few bugs and spiders are also
-eaten regularly. It is evident that a pair of ph&oelig;bes must materially reduce
-the number of insects near a garden or field, as the birds often, if not always,
-raise two broods a year, and each brood numbers from four to six young.</p>
-
-<p>There is hardly a more useful species about the farm than the ph&oelig;be, and
-it should receive every encouragement. To furnish nesting boxes is helpful,
-but not necessary, as it usually prefers a more open situation, like a shed or
-a nook under the eaves, but it should
-be protected from cats and other
-marauders.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 261px;">
-<a id="fig18" name="fig18"></a>
-<img src="images/fig18.png" width="261" height="241" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 18.</span>&mdash;Ph&oelig;be. Length, about 6&frac12; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The black ph&oelig;be has the same
-habits as its eastern relative, both
-as to selection of food and nesting
-sites, preferring for the latter purpose
-some structure of man, as a
-shed or, better still, a bridge over
-a stream of water, and the preference
-of the black ph&oelig;be for the
-vicinity of water is very pronounced.
-One may always be found at a stream&rsquo;
-or pool and often at a watering
-trough by the roadside.</p>
-
-<p>Careful study of the habits of the
-bird shows that it obtains a large
-portion of Its food about wet places.
-While camping beside a stream in
-California the writer took some
-pains to observe the habits of the
-black ph&oelig;be. The nesting season
-was over, and the birds had nothing
-to do but eat. This they appeared to be doing all the time. When first observed
-in the morning, at the first glimmer of daylight, a ph&oelig;be was always found
-flitting from rock to rock, although it was so dusky that the bird could hardly
-be seen. This activity was kept up all day. Even in the evening, when it
-was so dark that notes were written by the aid of the camp fire, the ph&oelig;be
-was still engaged in its work of collecting, though it was difficult to understand
-how it could catch insects when there was scarcely light enough to see
-the bird. Exploration of the stream showed that every portion of it was
-patrolled by a ph&oelig;be, that each one apparently did not range over more than 12
-or 13 rods of water, and that sometimes two or three were in close proximity.</p>
-
-<p>The number of insects destroyed in a year by the black ph&oelig;be is enormous.
-Fortunately, the examination of stomachs has supplemented observation in
-the field, and we are enabled to give precise details. Of the 333 stomachs examined,
-every one contained insects as the great bulk of the food. Only 15
-contained any vegetable food at all, and in no case was it a considerable part
-of the contents of the stomach. The insects eaten were mostly wasps, bugs,
-and flies, but many beetles also were destroyed.</p>
-
-<p>Useful beetles belonging to three families amount to 2.8 per cent of the
-food. Other beetles of harmful or neutral species reach 10.5 per cent. Wasps,
-the largest item of the food, were found in 252 stomachs and were the whole
-contents of 15. The average for the year is 35 per cent. Parasitic species
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">« 23 »</a></span>
-were noted, but they were very few. Ants were found in 48 stomachs, and for
-a short time in midsummer they constitute a notable part of the food. Various
-wild bees and wasps make up the bulk of this item. No honeybees were found.</p>
-
-<p>Bugs in various forms constitute 10.56 per cent and are eaten in every month
-but May. Stinkbugs appear to be the favorites, as they were contained in 10
-stomachs. Plant lice were found in one stomach. Flies, forming the second
-largest item, were found in 97 stomachs and completely filled 3. They constitute
-the most regular article in the black ph&oelig;be&rsquo;s diet. The maximum consumption
-occurs in April, 64.3 per cent. The black ph&oelig;be well merits its title
-of flycatcher.</p>
-
-<p>Moths and caterpillars amount to 8.2 per cent of the food. They were found
-in 72 stomachs, of which 51 contained the adult moths and 28 the larvæ or
-caterpillars. One stomach was entirely filled with adults. This is one of the
-few birds studied by the writer that eats more moths than caterpillars, for as
-a rule the caterpillars are largely in excess. Flycatchers, taking their food
-upon the wing, would naturally prove exceptions to the rule. Crickets are
-evidently not a favorite food of the black ph&oelig;be, as they amount to only 2.45
-per cent. They were found in 39 stomachs, but usually the amount in each was
-small, though one stomach was entirely filled with them. Grasshoppers did
-not appear. Dragon flies were eaten to some extent, and these illustrate the
-fondness of the species for the neighborhood of water.</p>
-
-<p>The vegetable matter eaten consisted chiefly of small wild fruits of no
-economic importance.</p>
-
-<p>Another ph&oelig;be inhabiting the Western States and breeding as far north as
-Alaska is the Say ph&oelig;be.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> Investigation of its food was based on the examination
-of 86 stomachs, and while none were available for the months when
-insects are most numerous, the bird proved to be one of the most exclusively
-insectivorous of the family. That it takes a few useful insects can not be
-denied, but these are far outnumbered by the harmful ones it destroys, and the
-balance is clearly in favor of the bird. Its vegetable food amounts to only 2
-per cent and is made up of a little wild fruit, seeds, and rubbish.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> <i>Sayornis sayus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a id="THE_KINGBIRDS" name="THE_KINGBIRDS"></a>THE KINGBIRDS.</p>
-
-
-<p>The well-known eastern kingbird<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> (<a href="#fig19">fig. 19</a>) is essentially a lover of the
-orchard, though groves and the edge of forests were probably its original habitat.
-It breeds in the States east of the Rocky Mountains, and less commonly in
-the Great Basin and on the Pacific coast. Its hostility to hawks and crows is
-proverbial, and for this reason a family of kingbirds is a desirable adjunct to
-a poultry yard. On one occasion in the knowledge of the writer a hawk which
-attacked a brood of young turkeys was pounced upon and so severely buffeted
-by a pair of kingbirds whose nest was near by that the would-be robber was
-glad to escape without his prey. Song birds that nest near the kingbird are
-similarly protected.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> <i>Tyrannus tyrannus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>The kingbird is largely insectivorous. It is a true flycatcher and takes on
-the wing a large part of its food. It does not, however, confine itself to this
-method of hunting, but picks up some insects from trees and weeds, and even
-descends to the ground in search of myriapods or thousand legs. The chief
-complaint against the species by both professional bee keepers and others has
-been that it preys largely upon honeybees. One bee raiser in Iowa, suspecting
-the kingbirds of feeding upon his bees, shot a number near his hives; but when
-the stomachs of the birds were examined by an expert entomologist, not a trace
-of honeybees could be found.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 260px;">
-<a id="fig19" name="fig19"></a>
-<img src="images/fig19.png" width="260" height="275" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 19.</span>&mdash;Kingbird. Length, about 8&frac12; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>An examination of 665 stomachs collected in various parts of the country,
-was made by the Biological Survey, but only 22 were found to contain remains
-of honeybees. In these 22 stomachs there were in all 61 honeybees, of which
-51 were drones, 8 were certainly workers, and the remaining 2 were too badly
-broken to be further identified.</p>
-
-<p>The insects that constitute the great bulk of the food of the bird are noxious
-species, largely beetles&mdash;May beetles, click beetles (the larvæ of which are
-known as wire-worms), weevils, which prey upon fruit and grain, and a host
-of others. Wasps, wild bees, and ants are conspicuous elements of the food, far
-outnumbering the hive bees. During summer many grasshoppers and crickets,
-as well as leaf hoppers and other bugs, also are eaten. In the stomachs examined
-were a number of robber files&mdash;insects which prey largely upon other
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">« 24 »</a></span>
-insects, including honeybees, and which are known to commit in this way
-extensive depredations. It is thus evident that the kingbird by destroying these
-flies actually does good work for the apiarist. The 26 robber flies found in the
-stomachs may be considered more than an equivalent for the 8 worker honeybees
-already mentioned. A few caterpillars are eaten, mostly belonging to the
-group commonly known as cutworms, all the species of which are harmful.</p>
-
-<p>About 11 per cent of the food consists of small native fruits, comprising some
-30 common species of the roadsides and thickets, as dogwood berries, elderberries,
-and wild grapes. The kingbird is not reported as eating cultivated
-fruit to an injurious extent, and it is very doubtful if this is ever the case.</p>
-
-<p>In the Western States the Arkansas kingbird<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> is not so domestic in its habits
-as its eastern relative, preferring to live among scattering oaks on lonely hillsides,
-rather than in orchards about ranch buildings. The work it does, however,
-in the destruction of noxious insects fully equals that of any member of
-its family. Like other flycatchers, it subsists mostly upon insects taken in
-mid-air, though it eats a number of grasshoppers, probably taken from the
-ground. The bulk of its food consists of beetles, bugs, wasps, and wild bees.
-Like its eastern representative, it has been accused of feeding to an injurious
-extent upon honeybees. In an examination of 62 stomachs of this species,
-great care was taken to identify every insect or fragment that had any resemblance
-to a honeybee; as a result,
-30 honeybees were identified, of
-which 29 were males or drones
-and 1 a worker. These were contained
-in four stomachs, and were
-the sole contents of three; in the
-fourth they constituted 99 per cent
-of the food. It is evident that the
-bee-eating habit is only occasional
-and accidental, rather than habitual;
-and it is also evident that
-if this ratio of drones to workers
-were maintained, the bird would be
-of more benefit than harm to the
-apiary.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> <i>Tyrannus verticalis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>The Cassin kingbird<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> has a more
-southerly range than the Arkansas
-flycatcher. Examination of a number
-of stomachs shows that its food
-habits are similar to those of others
-of the group.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Tyrannus vociferans</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Three points seem to be clearly
-established in regard to the food of
-the kingbirds&mdash;(1) that about 90
-per cent consists of insects, mostly
-injurious species; (2) that the alleged habit of preying upon honeybees is much
-less prevalent than has been supposed, and probably does not result in any
-great damage; and (3) that the vegetable food consists almost entirely of
-wild fruits which have no economic value.</p>
-
-<p>All of the kingbirds are of the greatest importance to the farmer and fruit
-grower, as they destroy vast numbers of harmful insects, and do no appreciable
-damage to any product of cultivation.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="NIGHTHAWK" id="NIGHTHAWK">NIGHTHAWK.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>The nighthawk, or bull-bat,<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> breeds throughout most of the United States and
-Canada, and winters in South America. It is strictly insectivorous, and hence
-does no damage to crops. The only charge that can be made against the bird
-is that it destroys some useful insects, but these are greatly in the minority in
-its food.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> <i>Chordeiles virginianus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Nighthawks are so expert in flight that no insects can escape them. In their
-capacious mouths they sweep up everything from the largest moths and dragon
-flies to the tiniest ants and gnats, and in this way sometimes gather most
-remarkable collections of insects. Several stomachs have contained 50 or more
-different kinds, and the number of individuals ran into the thousands.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">« 25 »</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Nearly a fourth of the birds&rsquo; total food is composed of ants. These Insects
-are generally annoying and often very injurious, especially on account of their
-damage to stored products and because of their habit of fostering destructive
-plant lice. More than a fifth of the nighthawk&rsquo;s food consists of June bugs,
-dung beetles, and other beetles of the leaf-chafer family. These are the adults
-of white grubs, noted pests, and even as adults many members of the family
-are decidedly harmful.</p>
-
-<p>Numerous other injurious beetles, as click beetles, wood borers, and weevils,
-are relished. True bugs, moths, flies, grasshoppers, and crickets also are
-important elements of the food. Several species of mosquitoes, including the
-transmitter of malaria, are eaten. Other well-known pests consumed by the
-nighthawk are Colorado potato beetles, cucumber beetles, rice, clover-leaf, and
-cotton-boll weevils, billbugs, bark beetles, squash bugs, and moths of the cotton
-worm.</p>
-
-<p>Nighthawks are much less numerous than formerly, chiefly because of
-wanton shooting. They are given full legal protection almost everywhere, and
-citizens should see that the law is
-obeyed. The bird is far too useful
-and attractive to be persecuted.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_WOODPECKERS" id="THE_WOODPECKERS">THE WOODPECKERS.</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 269px;">
-<a id="fig20" name="fig20"></a>
-<img src="images/fig20.png" width="269" height="304" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 20.</span>&mdash;Hairy woodpecker. Length, about 9 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Five or six species of woodpeckers
-are familiarly known throughout
-the eastern United States, and
-In the West are replaced by others
-of similar habits. Several species
-remain in the Northern States
-through the entire year, while
-others are more or less migratory.</p>
-
-<p>Farmers are prone to look upon
-woodpeckers with suspicion. When
-the birds are seen scrambling over
-fruit trees and pecking holes in
-the bark, it is concluded that they
-must be doing harm. Careful observers,
-however, have noticed
-that, excepting a single species,
-these birds rarely leave any conspicuous
-mark on a healthy tree,
-except when it is affected by wood-boring
-larvæ, which are accurately
-located, dislodged, and devoured
-by the woodpecker.</p>
-
-<p>Two of the best-known woodpeckers, the hairy woodpecker<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> (<a href="#fig20">fig. 20</a>) and the
-downy woodpecker,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> including their races, range over the greater part of the
-United States. They differ chiefly in size, their colors being practically the
-same. The males, like those of many other woodpeckers, are distinguished by
-a scarlet patch on the head. An examination of many stomachs of these two
-species shows that from two-thirds to three-fourths of the food consists of
-insects, chiefly noxious kinds. Wood-boring beetles, both adults and larvæ, are
-conspicuous, and with them are associated many caterpillars, mostly species
-that burrow into trees. Next in importance are the ants that live in decaying
-wood, all of which are sought by woodpeckers and eaten in great quantities.
-Many ants are particularly harmful to timber, for if they find a small spot of
-decay in the vacant burrow of a wood borer, they enlarge the hole, and, as
-their colony is always on the increase, continue to eat away the wood until the
-whole trunk is honeycombed. Moreover, they are not accessible to birds generally,
-and could pursue their career of destruction unmolested were it not
-that the woodpeckers, with beaks and tongues especially fitted for such work,
-dig out and devour them. It is thus evident that woodpeckers are great conservators
-of forests. To them more than to any other agency we owe the preservation
-of timber from hordes of destructive insects.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>Dryobates villosus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>Dryobates pubecens</i>.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">« 26 »</a></span></p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_left" style="width: 258px;">
-<a id="fig21" name="fig21"></a>
-<img src="images/fig21.png" width="258" height="217" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 21.</span>&mdash;Flicker. Length, about 12&frac12; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>One of the larger woodpeckers familiar to everyone is the flicker, or golden-winged
-woodpecker<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> (<a href="#fig21">fig. 21</a>), which is generally distributed throughout the
-United States from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains. There it is
-replaced by the red-shafted flicker,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> which extends westward to the Pacific.
-The two species are as nearly identical
-in food habits as their respective
-environments will allow. The
-flickers, while genuine woodpeckers,
-differ somewhat in habits from
-the rest of the family, and are frequently
-seen searching for food
-upon the ground. Like the downy
-and hairy woodpeckers, they feed
-upon wood-boring grubs and ants,
-but the number of ants eaten is
-much greater than that eaten by
-the other two species. Of the flickers&rsquo;
-stomachs examined, three were
-completely filled with ants. Two
-of these contained more than 3,000
-individuals each, while the third
-contained fully 5,000. These ants
-belong to species which live in the
-ground. It is these insects for which
-the flicker searches when it runs about in the grass, although some grasshoppers
-also are then taken. The flicker&rsquo;s habit of pecking holes in buildings sometimes
-greatly annoys its human friends, and it is particularly noticeable in the California
-species. Observation has shown that the object of the work is to obtain
-shelter for the winter. In the East most of the flickers are migratory, and only a
-few remain North where shelter is necessary. These generally find a safe retreat
-in the hollow tree In which they nested. In California, however, where the
-birds do not migrate, trees are not
-so abundant as in the East, and
-consequently buildings are brought
-into requisition, and in them holes
-are drilled, usually under the eaves,
-where snug nights&rsquo; lodgings are
-found. Often a dozen holes may
-be seen in one building. Barns or
-other outbuildings are usually selected,
-though churches sometimes
-have been used.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> <i>Colaptes auratus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Colaptes cafer collaris</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 260px;">
-<a id="fig22" name="fig22"></a>
-<img src="images/fig22.png" width="260" height="286" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 22.</span>&mdash;Red-headed woodpecker. Length,
-about 9&frac12; inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The red-headed woodpecker<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> (<a href="#fig22">fig. 22</a>)
-is well known east of the Rocky
-Mountains, but Is rather rare in
-New England. Unlike some of the
-other species, it prefers fence posts
-and telegraph poles to trees as
-a foraging ground. Its food therefore
-naturally differs from that of
-the preceding species, and consists
-largely of adult beetles and wasps
-which it frequently captures on the
-wing after the fashion of flycatchers.
-Grasshoppers also form an
-important part of the food. Among
-the beetles are a number of predacious
-ground species and some
-tiger beetles, which are useful insects. The red-head has been accused
-of robbing nests of other birds, and of pecking out the brains of young birds
-and poultry; but as the stomachs showed little evidence to substantiate this
-charge, the habit probably is exceptional.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> <i>Melanerpes erythrocephalus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>The vegetable food of woodpeckers is varied, but consists largely of small
-fruits and berries. The downy and hairy woodpeckers eat such fruits as dogwood
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">« 27 »</a></span>
-and Virginia creeper and seeds of poison ivy, sumac, and a few other
-shrubs. The flicker also eats a great many small fruits and the seeds of a considerable
-number of shrubs and weeds. None of the three species is much
-given to eating cultivated fruits or crops. The red-head has been accused of
-eating the larger kinds of fruit, as apples, and also of taking considerable corn.
-Stomach examinations show that to some extent these charges are substantiated,
-but that the habit is not prevalent enough to cause much damage. The
-bird is fond of mast, especially beechnuts, and when these nuts are plentiful it
-remains north all winter.</p>
-
-<p>Woodpeckers apparently are the only agents which can successfully cope with
-certain insect enemies of the forest, and, to some extent, with those of fruit
-trees also. For this reason, if for no other, they should be protected in every
-possible way.</p>
-
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<p class="caption2"><a name="THE_CUCKOOS" id="THE_CUCKOOS">THE CUCKOOS.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>Two species of cuckoos are common In the United States east of the Great
-Plains, the yellow-billed cuckoo<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> (<a href="#fig23">fig. 23</a>) and the black-billed cuckoo,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> and in
-the West a relative of the yellow-bill, the California cuckoo,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> ranges from
-Colorado and Texas to the Pacific coast. While the two species are quite distinct,
-the food habits of the yellow-bill and the black-bill do not greatly differ
-and their economic status is practically the same.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> <i>Coccyzus americanus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> <i>Coccyzus erythyropthalmus</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>Coccyzus americanus occidentalis</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Examination of 155 stomachs has shown that these species are much given
-to eating caterpillars, and, unlike most birds, do not reject those covered with
-hair. In fact, cuckoos eat so
-many hairy caterpillars that the
-hairs pierce the inner lining of
-the stomach and remain there,
-and often when the stomach is
-opened it appears to be lined
-with a thin coating of fur.</p>
-
-<div class="fig_right" style="width: 282px;">
-<a id="fig23" name="fig23"></a>
-<img src="images/fig23.png" width="282" height="190" alt="" />
-<div class="fig_caption"><span class="smcap">Fig. 23.</span>&mdash;Yellow-billed cuckoo. Length, about 12 inches.</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>An examination of the stomachs
-of 46 black-billed cuckoos,
-taken during the summer months,
-showed the remains of 906 caterpillars,
-44 beetles, 96 grasshoppers,
-100 sawflies, 30 stinkbugs,
-and 15 spiders. In all
-probability more individuals
-than these were represented, but
-their remains were too badly
-broken for recognition. Most of
-the caterpillars were hairy, and
-many of them belong to a genus that lives in colonies and feeds on the leaves of
-trees, including the apple tree. One stomach was filled with larvæ of a caterpillar
-belonging to the same genus as the tent caterpillar, and possibly to that
-species. Other larvæ were those of large moths, for which the bird seems to
-have a special fondness. The beetles were for the most part click beetles and
-weevils, as well as a few May beetles. The sawflies were contained in two
-stomachs, one of which held no less than 60 in the larval stage.</p>
-
-<p>Of the yellow-billed cuckoo, 109 stomachs (collected from May to October)
-were examined. They contained 1,865 caterpillars, 93 beetles, 242 grasshoppers,
-37 sawflies, 69 bugs, 6 flies, and 86 spiders. As in the case of the black-billed
-cuckoo, most of the caterpillars belonged to hairy species and many of them
-were of large size. One stomach contained 250 American tent caterpillars;
-another 217 fall webworms. The beetles were distributed among several families,
-all more or less harmful to agriculture. In the same stomach which contained
-the tent caterpillars were 2 Colorado potato beetles; in another were
-3 goldsmith beetles, and remains of several other large beetles. Besides the
-ordinary grasshoppers were several katydids and tree crickets. The sawflies
-were in the larval stage, in which they resemble caterpillars so closely that
-they are commonly called false caterpillars by entomologists. The bugs consisted
-of stinkbugs and cicadas, or dog-day harvest flies, with the single exception
-of one wheel bug, which was the only useful insect eaten.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">« 28 »</a></span></p>
-
-
-
-
-<p class="caption2"><a name="BOBWHITE" id="BOBWHITE">BOBWHITE.</a></p>
-
-
-<p>No bird is better known to country residents than the bobwhite<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> (see illustration
-on title-page). The bird&rsquo;s cheery calls the year round form part of
-the most pleasant associations of country life, and its neat form and harmonious
-coloration, and especially its confiding habits, make it a general
-favorite.</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> <i>Colinus virginianus.</i></p></div>
-
-<p>Any bushy fence row serves as a retreat for its nest, or for winter shelter, and
-weed-covered fields are its favorite feeding places. Weed seeds form more
-than half the total food and include those of all the worst weed pests of the
-farm. Among them may be mentioned crab, cockspur, witch, and foxtail
-grasses, sheep sorrel, smartweed, bindweed, lamb&rsquo;s-quarters, pigweeds, corn
-cockle, chickweed, charlock, partridge pea, beggar lice, nail grass, rib grass, ragweed,
-and Spanish needles.</p>
-
-<p>Acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, and pine seeds make up about 2.5 per cent of
-the food, and wild fruit about 10 per cent The fruits include berries of palmetto,
-smilax, wax myrtle, mulberry, sassafras, blackberries and raspberries,
-rose haws, cherry, sumac, grapes, sour gum, blueberries, honeysuckle, partridgeberry,
-and a number of others. The bobwhite feeds to a slight extent upon
-buds and leaves, including those of yellow and red sorrel, cinquefoil, and
-clover.</p>
-
-<p>Grain forms scarcely more than a sixth of the food, and most of it is taken
-during winter and early spring when nothing but waste grain is available
-The habit of gleaning this after the harvest is beneficial to the farm, for
-volunteer grain is not desirable, especially where it serves to maintain certain
-insect and fungus pests. Although most of the grain and seed crops grown upon
-the farm are represented in bobwhite&rsquo;s dietary, no significant damage can be
-attributed to the bird.</p>
-
-<p>Animal food, chiefly insects, composed nearly a sixth of the bird&rsquo;s subsistence.
-From June to August, inclusive, when insects are most numerous, their proportion
-in the food is about 36 per cent. The variety of insect food is great
-and includes a number of the most destructive agricultural pests. Among
-them may be mentioned the Colorado potato beetle, 12-spotted cucumber beetle,
-bean leaf beetle, squash ladybird, wire-worms. May beetles, corn billbugs,
-clover-leaf weevil, army worm, boilworm, cutworms, and chinch bug.</p>
-
-<p>The food habits of the bobwhite undoubtedly are beneficial and the bird
-should be maintained in numbers on every farm. This is not to say that all
-shooting should be prohibited, for the bird is very prolific. But its numbers
-should not be reduced below what the available nesting sites and range will
-support. On the other hand the policy of absolute protection recently adopted
-by one of the States is not called for by strictly economic considerations.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">« 29 »</a></span></p>
-
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-
-<p class="caption2">ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE<br />
-WHEN THIS PUBLICATION WAS LAST PRINTED</p>
-
-<table summary="Organization">
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl" style="width: 20em;"><i>Secretary of Agriculture</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Henry A. Wallace</span>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Under Secretary</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Rexford G. Tugwell</span>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Assistant Secretary</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">M. L. Wilson</span>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Director of Extension Work</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">C. W. Warburton</span>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Director of Personnel</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">W. W. Stockberger</span>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Director of Information</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">M. S. Eisenhower</span>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Director of Finance</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">W. A. Jump</span>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Solicitor</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Seth Thomas</span>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Agricultural Adjustment Administration</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Chester C. Davis</span>, <i>Administrator</i>.</td>
-  </tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Agricultural Economics</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A. G. Black</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Agricultural Engineering</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">S. H. McCrory</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Animal Industry</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">John R. Mohler</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Biological Survey</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">J. N. Darling</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Chemistry and Soils</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">H. G. Knight</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Dairy Industry</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">O. E. Reed</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Lee A. Strong</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Office of Experiment Stations</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">James T. Jardine</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Food and Drug Administration</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Walter G. Campbell</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Forest Service</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Ferdinand A. Silcox</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Grain Futures Administration</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">J. W. T. Duvel</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Home Economics</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Louise Stanley</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Library</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Claribel R. Barnett</span>, <i>Librarian</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Plant Industry</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Frederick D. Richey</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Bureau of Public Roads</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Thomas H. MacDonald</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
-  <td class="tdl"><i>Weather Bureau</i></td>
-  <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Willis R. Gregg</span>, <i>Chief</i>.</td>
-</tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="pmt2 pmb2 center">U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1935<br />
-<br />
-For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.<br />
-Price 5 cents</p>
-
-
-<div class="trans_notes">
-
-<p class="caption2">Transcriber Notes</p>
-
-
-<p>All illustrations were moved so as to not split paragraphs. There does not
-appear to be a footnote numbered &ldquo;2&rdquo;, therefore, the one numbered &ldquo;3&rdquo; and
-all following footnote numbers were decremented by 1.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg's USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 630, by F. E. L. Beal
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