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Illustration of Bank Swallow by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
LABORATORY OF ORNITHOLOGY
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Bull. 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. PiaTE I.
Fia. 1.—DWELLING HOUSE ON BRYAN Farm.
Fig. 2.—VIEW OF THE POTOMAC FROM BRYAN HOMESTEAD, SHOWING FEEDING
PLACES OF GULLS, DUCKS, AND OTHER WATERFOWL.
Mount Vernon in the distance.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY—-BULLETIN No. 17
C. HART MERRIAM, Chief
BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM
A LOCAL STUDY OF ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY
BY
SYLVESTER D. JUDD, Ph. D.
ASSISTANT, BIOLOGICAL SURVEY
PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
Dr. C. HART MERRIAM
CHIEF OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.
U. S. Department or AGRICULTURE,
Washington, D. C., July 5, 1902.
Srr: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for publication as Bul-
letin 17 of the Biological Survey, a report on the Birds of a Maryland
Farm, the same being a local study in economic ornithology by one
of my assistants, Dr. Sylvester D. Judd. Acknowledgment is made
to the Entomologist for assistance in the determination of some of the
insects, as well as for the use of certain illustrations.
Respectfully, C. Harr Merriam,
Chief, Biological Survey.
Hon. Jamrs WIson,
Secretary of Agriculture.
CONTENTS.
TD, TntrGd Wet ON... ooisicjecjonsanaiccds deesse seesaw ssemesiossecsseesiee sess
Topography of Bryan farm............-----------------+-------
Distributionof birds:. .....-<-..<0.60-2cceccesen sess easesenessece
Birds that feed in open fields.........----..----------------
Birds that depend on cover......--.------------------------
Birds of less limited distribution................------------
Birds of varied distribution....-......-..-.-----------------
Topography of Hungerford farm .........---. ---..-------------
Ts, DRBSCCEAGO x Gee scte ecco rotansoca late ucepacain ste ahcrchatursioparat eal ocialeeIeme exis
Mia ys HGS i. atc, ctarntaintaiciatereaigig cieterarste aia aratonratotctereialeiangpassammemeiseccins
Unifes ted Crops ja saistaartatere. sisted oe anys igieiaietsbsraghrerereicronisieisideaieeeoiarec eis
Infested trees and shrubs ...............-------------+---------
Certain destructive insects.........----.----..----2----e- eee eeee
Wisef ula nise cts) tac ateiehr a raday aga eae se meee
SUMMAry «ogee eens aasenprsearaeenene see soeeee seeks ae eee
Hood: of nestlings sri; eer aes aes eee
Genetal remarks yoo. ..soseenees se tsegu ese eee a eeceeeeeenees
8 k=] nm RPE Wc gee EY ON
Weed destruction by native sparrows
Weed destruction by other birds..............-..------.--------
WAT SPCClesis Home Life of Wild Birds, 1901.
eBull. 55, N. H. Agr. Expt. Sta., 1898.
44 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
under any circumstances not so desirable as had been anticipated. A
92-inch telescope with a single draw tube proved much more service-
able. Working with it, however, is very slow and arduous on account
of its limited field and the difficulty of changing the focus quickly.
Grasshopper Sparrow.—The difficulties encountered in the use of the
telescope in field work may be well shown by a somewhat detailed
account of its use in the following instance: On July 9, 1898, a
grasshopper sparrow’s nest containing four naked young birds was
found in a bunch of rabbit-foot clover in-a timothy field of lot 1,
several rods from the cow barn. The male parent was poised on a
weed stalk at no great distance, rattling out his dry ditty, never once
stopping to help the mother bird, which was making frequent jour-
neys for food. The latter, on seeing me, perched on a dead muilein
stalk 20 to 30 feet away, instead of carrying to her little ones the
mouthful she held. The telescope was immediately focused. It
enlarged the mother bird so much that she appeared to be peering in.
at the end of the instrument. The object in her bill was seen to be of
a delicate green color, but before further observation could be made
she flew to the top of a blackberry bush. Here, by fragmentary
glimpses, during which it was necessary to change the focus several
times, a narrow wing cover and a long, slim leg were discerned, which
showed that the insect belonged to the order Orthoptera (grasshop-
pers, crickets, etc.). The bird next returned to her perch on the mul-
léin stalk, where she remained long enough to enable the telescope to
reveal, projecting from the beak on the side opposite the leg and wing,
two filiform antenne which exceeded the body in length and furnished
the necessary clew to the insect’s identity as a meadow grasshopper.
Further observations were made, with the same interruptions and
demands upon the patience. In the next two trips she brought the
same insects. She next came with a cutworm, then with a chrysalis,
and later with two short-horned grasshoppers (Afelanoplus and Disso-
tetra). The meagerness of these results, considering the time required
for obtaining the information, was due to the restless uneasiness of
the grasshopper sparrow and the location of the nest in an open field
where no cover for the observer was available to reduce the bird’s
apprehension. Observation of a house wren (see p. 45) was conducted
under more favorable conditions and was much more satisfactory. No
nestling grasshopper sparrows were collected at Marshall Hall, but 14
from other localities have been examined, and diagrams that were made
of their food and of that of 10 adults taken at the same time show the
great importance of insects in the food of nestlings.“
Orchard Oriole—A few observations were made of a brood of well-
feathered orchard orioles in a black-walnut tree near the negro cabin,
«These diagrams were published in an article entitled The Food of Nestling Birds,
which appeared in the Yearbook of the Dept. of Agriculture for 1900.
FOOD OF NESTLINGS. 45
July 18, 1898.. The male parent, a bird in greenish plumage, did not
help to provide for the young, but appeared to think that his sole duty
consisted in coming to the tree occasionally and singing. The mother
worked incessantly. It was difficult to identify what she brought,
because she was so shy and remained at the nest so brief atime. I
had to stand close to the tree and focus the glass on her when she was
nervously hopping from branch to branch. Working under these
difficulties I was able to identify but 2 caterpillars, 3 May-flies, 2 short-
horned grasshoppers, and 3 meadow grasshoppers.
House Wren.—The most satisfactory and continued observations were
made June 17, 1899, of some young house wrens that were about
three-fourths grown. In this case it was found desirable to remove
the nest, which was in a cavity in a locust tree, transfer it to a baking-
powder can, and nail the can to the trunk of the tree about 4 feet
from the ground. The following is a detailed account of the feeding:
Feeding of a brood of house wrens.
A. M. A.M.
5.55. Green caterpillar (Heliothis dipsa- | 8.24. May-fly.
ceus). 8.29. Brown orthopterous insect.
5.56. May-fly. 8.30. Heliothis dipsaceus.
6.00. May-fly. 8 35. Undetermined.
6.02. Undetermined. 8.38. Caterpillar.
6.05. Heliothis dipsaceus. 8.413. May-fly.
(Observations suspended till 7.20 a. m.) | 8.48. May-fly.
7.21. Undetermined. 8.45. Brown caterpillar (cutworm?).
7.23. May-fly. 8.46. Heliothis dipsaceus.
(Observations suspended till 7.45 a.m.) | 8.47. Undetermined insect.
7.46. Harvestman (Phalangide). 8.48. Undetermined insect.
7.47. May-fly. 8.49. Undetermined insect.
7.48. Undetermined insect. 8.50. Undetermined insect.
7.49. Urdetermined. 8.523. Cutworm (?).
7.51. Undetermined. 8.55. Heliothis dipsaceus.
7.55. Undetermined. 8.56. Undetermined insect.
7.56. Undetermined. 8.59. Pentatomid bug (Nezara?).
7.57. Undetermined. 9.03. Cutworm (?).
7.574. Undetermined. 9.05. Cutworm.
8.003. Undetermined. 9.10. Caterpillar (Acronycta oblinita).
8.01. Undetermined. 9.13. Brown soldier bug.
8.03. Undetermined. 9.17. Green caterpillar (noctuid).
8.033. Undetermined. 9.20. White grub.
8.06. Heliothis dipsaceus. 9.25. Clay-colored grasshopper.
8.08. Undetermined insect. 9.253. Grasshopper.
8.11. Undetermined insect. 9.30. Undetermined insect.
8.133. Brown caterpillar. 9.37. (Two cabbage worms placed on
8.16. Undetermined insect. edge of tin can.)
8.18. Undetermined insect. 9.38. Acronycta oblinita.
8.20. Undetermined insect. 9.39. Heliothis dipsaceus. (Refused cab-
8.22. Undetermined insect. bage worm. )
8.23. Two May-flies. 9.393. May-fly.
46 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
Feeding of a brood of house wrens—Continued.
ALM. AM,
9.45. Grasshopper. 11.02. May-fly.
9.46. Cutworm. 11.023. May-fly.
9.50. Grasshopper (Melanoplus). 11.15. Green caterpillar.
9.52. Saw-fly larva (?). 11.20. Miller (noctuid).
9.54. Miller (noctuid). 11.21. Black chrysalis.
9.55. Heliothis dipsaceus. 11.22. Saw-fly larva (?).
9.57. Heliothis dipsaceus. 11.25. Spider.
10.00. Spider. 11.26. Grasshopper (Melanoplus).
10.01. Heliothis dipsaceus. 11.30. Aeliothis dipsaceus.
10.05. Black chrysalis. 11.803. May-fly.
10.08. Cutworm. 11.32. Spider.
10.15. Spider. 11.34. Grasshopper (Melanoplus).
10.16. Caterpillar. 11.344. Saw-fly larva (?).
10.20. May-fly. 11.36. Acronycta oblinita.
10.23. Spider. 11.393. May-fly.
10.26. Clay-colored grasshopper. 11.47. Cutworm.
10.29. Clay-coloredgrasshoppernymph. | 11.48. May-fly.
10.30. Acronycta oblinita. 11.50. Cutworm.
10.35. Green caterpillar. 11.51. Heliothis dipsaceus (2).
10.38. Heliothis dipsaceus. 11.59. Heliothis dipsaceus.
10.41. Heliothis dipsaceus. P.M.
10.46. Clay-colored grasshopper. 12.02. Heliothis dipsaceus.
10.48. Spider. 12.06. Spider.
10.50. Miller (noctuid). 12.07. Heliothis dipsaceus.
10.52. Clay-coloredgrasshoppernymph. | 12.09. Cutworm.
10.54. Miller (noctuid). 12.11. Spider.
The mother wren thus made 110 visits to her little ones in four
hours and thirty-seven minutes, and fed them 111 insects and spiders.
Among these were identified 1 white grub, 1 soldier bug, 3 millers
(Noctuide), 9 spiders, 9 grasshoppers, 15 May-flies, and 34 caterpil-
lars. On the following day similar observations were made from 9.35
a. m. till 12.40 p. m., and in the three hours and five minutes the young
were fed 67 times. Spiders were identified in 4 instances, grasshop-
pers in 5, May-ilies in 17, and caterpillars in 20.
Previous to the observation of this brood of wrens a collection of
adult and nestling wrens was made. Their food is shown in diagrams
(Pl. IX, fig. 1).
Barn Swallow.—The food of seven nestling barn swallows (fig. 16)
collected June 17, 1899, consisted of beetles (Onthophagus pennsyl-
vanicus, Aphodius inquinatus, Agrilus sp., and Rhynchophora), para-
sitic wasps (Chalcis sp., Ichneumonide and 7iphca ‘nornata) and flies
(Leptide, Chrysops sp., Lucilia cesar and other Muscide), bugs
(Capsidee), May-flies, and snails. The vertebre of some small fish,
which may have been taken to aid the gizzard in digesting the food,
were also found in the stomachs.
Bank Swallow.—An examination was made of the stomachs of 83
young bank swallows collected a few miles above Marshall Hall from
FOOD OF NESTLINGS. 47
a colony in the face of the river bluff. They were probably the prog-
eny of the swallows that frequently circled over the farm. The food
of the nestlings and that of adults collected during the nesting season
is shown in diagrams (Pl. IX, fig. 2).
Purple martins, which came from a colony of somewhat more than
a dozen pairs nesting in boxes on poles at Bryan’s Point, a mile above
the house, were often seen circling about the farm. On June 28, 1902,
I visited the colony and found the parent birds feeding the young sol-
dier bugs, ants, fig-eaters (A//orhinu nitidu), and dragon-flies (Zibellada
and Agrionide).
Fic. 16.—Barn swallow.
Three young downy woodpeckers which were collected May 28,
1896, had fed principally on ants, but had also eaten spiders, ground
beetles, and caterpillars.
Catbird.—The difference between the food of adults and young
belonging to a highly frugivorous species is well ilustrated in the
case of the catbird, and is shown in diagrams (PI. IX, fig. 3), which
were made principally from results obtained at Marshall Hall.
Crow and Crow Blackbird.—Such granivorous birds as crows and
crow blackbirds feed their young mainly insects, ‘Sufficient material
48 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
to illustrate this habit was not available at Marshall Hall, but the
diagrams here given (figs. 17 and 18), based on results obtained
elsewhere,” will serve to show it. By the time the young are ready
to leave the nest, however, they are fed to a large extent on either
grain or fruit, according to locality. In the Middle West they take
grain and in the East generally fruit. Both crows and crow black-
LP
~j YP
A VERTEBRATES
3 WEEKS AND OLDER
Fic. 17.—Diagram showing proportions of food of American crow (Corvus americanus), young and adult.
birds do great service by feeding to their young not only cutworms
and grasshoppers, but also large numbers of weevils and May-beetles.
GENERAL REMARKS.
Consumption of caterpillars and grasshoppers is the largest benefit
derived from the presence of nestlings on the farm. The parent birds
«Most of the stomachs of young and adult crows used in the investigation on
which the results shown in the diagram are based were obtained at Sandy Spring,
Md.; and most of those of young and adult crow blackbirds came from Onaga, Kans.
PLATE IX.
Bull. 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
NESTLING. Fis. 1.—House Wren. ADULT.
[1, Cutworm ; 2, spider - 3, stink-bug ; 4, May-fly 5 5, weevil; 6, grasshopper.]
NESTLING. Fis. 2.—Bank SwALLow. ADULT.
(1, Weevil; 2, ichneumon fly ; 3, winged ant; 4, fly; 5, dragon-fly ; 6, stink-bug.]
NESTLING. Fic. 3.—CaTBIRD. ADULT.
(1, Ground-beetle; 2, cutworm; 3, ant; 4, grasshopper; 5, spider.]
Foon oF NESTLINGS AND ADULTS OF THREE COMMON BIRDS.
(The diagrams show the proportions of the various orders of insects in the food, each order
being represented by the insect belonging to it that is most commonly eaten by the bird whose
food is shown. (In the case of the Hymenoptera a division is sometimes made between the
parasitic members of the order, which are very useful, and those that are neutral or injurious
The figures of insects are reduced from cuts kindly loaned by Dr. L. O. Howard.)] i
Bull. 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. PLATE X,
Fig. 1.—RED-TAILED HAWK.
Fig. 2.—SHORT-EARED OWL.
FOOD OF NESTLINGS. 49
hunt out these insects when they are not abundant ana even when they
arerare. At the time of the foregoing observations of orchard orioles,
house wrens, and grasshopper sparrows, caterpillars and grasshoppers
were comparatively scarce; yet the parent birds, though they chose
insects for their own eating from more abundant species, hunted far
and wide for these rare ones to feed their young. At Marshall Hall
LEPIDOPTERA
‘ORTHOPTERA ORTHOPTERA
NEWLY HATCHED HALF GROWN
ORTHOPTERA
CRAYFISH
sven ABeOUS
Sn ITEBRATES,
I \. SNAILS
NEARLY FLEDGED ADULT
Fic. 18.—Diagram showing proportions of food of crow blackbird (Quiscalus quiscula xneus), young
and adult.
the protection and encouragement of birds at nesting time is of prime
importance. Adults of the most numerous species on the farm are
either highly frugivorous or highly granivorous, hence the insectiy-
orous habits of nestlings help considerably to establish the. beneficent
relation of birds to the farm economy.
7222—No. 17—02———4
50 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
ITI.—VERTEBRATE FOOD.
POULTRY AND GAME.
Crows.—Certain species of the larger birds were found to take ver-
tebrate food. Crows and some of the hawks and owls destroyed useful
small birds and also game and poultry. On the Hungerford farm
crows were observed killing newly-hatched turkeys, and on the Bryan
farm they were not uncommonly seen carrying off little chickens.
The most serious offense against the poultry interest, however, was
the habitual stealing of eggs. During April, 1900, a crow came every
day and robbed a hen’s nest in the side of a hayrick at a little distance
from buildings. Often he would be seen waiting on a fence near by
until the hen announced that the egg had been laid, when he would
dash down and make off with his booty. Such depredations could be
avoided by furnishing the hens with such facilities that they would no
longer lay in exposed situations. As it is, incessant war upon the
crow is necessary to prevent heavy logs to poultry on this farm. Game
birds also suffer. On May 15,1900, a crow was caught on the forested
slope beyond the swamp (Pl. VII, fig. 2) in the act of pillaging the
nest of a ruffed grouse. Crows also despoiled the nest of a bobwhite,
a species which probably suffers oftener than the ruffed grouse.
Eagle.—The bald eagles that are frequently seen at Marshall Hall
do not disdain to pick up a little game now and then. Early in March,
1897, a crippled scaup.duck was seen in the river a hundred’ yards
from the house chased by an eagle and diving every time its pursuer
swooped down on it. When the quarry was almost tired out the eagle
was shot, and fell into the river with a broken wing, but it had suffi-
cient strength left to lacerate a pointer that attempted to retrieve it.
On November 15, 1900, an eagle was seen flying over the house gripping
in its talons a live coot, which turned its head rapidly from side to side
in its struggles to escape. During the hunting season eagles get a
good part of their food by picking up wounded ducks. They also
prey on domesticated ducks. In the first week of August, 1896, they
carried off several ducklings that went down to the swamp. The
royal brigands relish chicken, and in the nest of one pair that came to
the farm was the carcass of a recently kdled Plymouth Rock hen.
Cooper Hawk.—With the exception of the English sparrow, the
Cooper hawk (tig. 19) probably does the least good and the most harm
of all the birds of the farm, for it subsists almost entirely on wild
birds and poultry. It very frequently steals little chickens, and con-
stantly preys on the bobwhite and useful insectivorous or seed-eating
small birds. During November, 1900, the bobwhites were so perse-
cuted that they were seldom found far from cover. In one instance a
hawk was seen to swoop to the ground and rise with a victim, the
VERTEBRATE FOOD. 51
identity of which was afterwards made sure by the discovery of the
feathers of a cock bobwhite on the spot where the hawk had struck.
Sharpshinned Hawk.—The sharpshinned hawk, congener of the
Cooper hawk, is also a harmful species. It was frequently observed
pursuing native sparrows, and on November 15, 1900, was seen tearing
a mockingbird to pieces. The smaller birds suffer most in autumn.
On the 15th of November, 1899, I was observing a score of cardinals,
juncos, white-throated sparrows, fox sparrows, and song sparrows
PRP
ily ge 3
ligt tlie:
WW Mali
Fic. 19.—Cooper hawk.
that were eating ragweed seed in wheat stubble’by the negro cabin.
Suddenly the whole flock sprang into the air and flew straight toward
me and into the bushes behind me, twittering with fright. Their
swiftness just saved them from a sharpshinned hawk, which swooped
and struck the ground where they had been feeding. It was two
hours before they dared to leave their shelter and feed again on weed
seeds of the stubble-field. These two species of hawks patrol the farm
52 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
so vigilantly in autumn and winter that birds which eat weed seed are
kept in constant terror, and are unable to do all the good they might
accomplish were it not for their tireless enemies. Owing to the
depredations of these two hawks, all hawks without distinction have
been relentlessly persecuted by man, although very few are actually
detrimental to agriculture.
Great Horned Owl.—Only one of the several species of owls occur-
ring at Marshall Hall is harmful, namely, the great horned owl (fig. 20).
Fic. 20.—Great horned owl.
It occasionally makes inroads on poultry that is not housed. In
December, 1897, a great horned owl carried off a full-grown hen from
her roost in a tree beside the negro cabin, and on five of the first ten
nights of May one came and took hens from the cedar trees behind the
house. On the night of the sixth visit a steel trap baited with a hen
secured the robber. A year seldom passes without losses from this
fierce and powerful bird of prey.
VERTEBRATE FOOD. 53
FISH.
Several species of birds on the farm are known to feed on fish, but
they are so few in number and take food fishes so seldom that as far
as has been learned they cause no material injury to fishing interests,
which at this point on the river are of considerable importance. A
pair of kingtishers were often seen fishing along the shore in front of
the Bryan house (PI. ITI, fig. 2), and five nestlings taken from the bluff
on the Hungerford place had been fed wholly on fish. Herons, includ-
ing the night heron, the green heron, and the great blue heron, were
frequently seen wading in shallow water, spearing fish with their long,
pointed beaks. Two green herons that were collected had eaten sil-
versides (A/-nidia notata) and mummichogs (Pundulus heteroctitus).
Ducks, particularly the mergansers, feed to some extent on fish. Two
hooded mergansers, collected November 15, 1900, had eaten respect-
ively 12 and 20 tiny fish. Gulls are decidedly more piscivorous than
ducks. During November the herring gull and the ring-billed gull
fished by the dozen out in the river between the farmhouse and Mount
Vernon (see Pl. I, frontispiece fig. 2). In the same place the osprey
was once in a while seen plunging after his prey. The bald eagle was
observed catching fish, but more often it feeds on those that it finds
dead.
CARRION.
Some birds, notably eagles, crows, and buzzards, feed at times
largely on dead fish. Eagles may be seen along the river scanning the
shore for those cast up by the tide. May 19, 1899, an eagle flying
over the farm dropped an eel 26 inches long that had evidently been
taken as carrion. Gulls, also, undoubtedly pick up a good deal of
such food. Crows and buzzards are valuable scavengers of dead fish
cast up at low tide during the last of April and the first of May, when
the fishing season is at its height. These fish are small, principally
sun-fish, white perch, and shad, that were fatally injured by nets.
Observations on May 5, 1901, showed the whole river front of the
farm strewn with decaying fish, which gave out such a stench that one
could not sit comfortably within several hundred yards of the beach.
Some 40 buzzards were feeding on the carrion all day. On close
inspection they were seen to be selecting that which was most badly
decomposed. Crows in almost as-large numbers and several crow
blackbirds were also feeding, but they commonly took that which was
less decayed. Several crows came repeatedly to the shore of lot 1,
picked up fish, and carried them to their nests in the woods. By
abating this nuisance crows and buzzards do a service that is appre-
ciated by the occupants of the farmhouse.
Buzzards are also useful in removing other carrion. Stack that
dies on the farm is never buried, but is left for them. November 16,
54 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
1899, some notes were made on the manner in which a carcass was
disposed of. On the edge of lot 1, near the mouth of Persimmon
Branch, lay a horse that had died two weeks before. Fully 30 buz-
zards closely attended it, and some were to be found at work on it at
any hour of the day, while the others, tired of gorging, sat around
on a rail fence, stretching their wings and preening. At night they
all roosted together in oak trees within a hundred yards of the horse,
as if they wished to keep near the food. A year later another horse was
given over to the buzzards. The buzzards did not in either case tear
open the skin to expose the large muscles, but if the weather had been
hot they might have eaten these as well as viscera. Crows are seldom
known to feed on dead stock, but during the March blizzard of 1898
they were almost starved, and resorted with buzzards to a dead cow.
Buzzards dispose of the entrails and other refuse of pigs, fish, and
chickens, which are thrown to them in a certain place where they
have learned to expect it.
MAMMALS.
Mice.—The crow and several other birds of the farm do some good
by destroying injurious mammals. In the vicinity of the storage barn
a loggerhead shrike was often to be seen. Here it impaled its prey on
thorns of the osage orange hedge and on the barbs of a wire fence. In
one instance a house mouse was found spitted on the fence. If extended
observations could have been made it is probable that mice would often
have been found in the larder of this useful little shrike. The crow
takes mice at every opportunity. On February 21, 1900, signs of its
work appeared near the runways of meadow mice in a wheat-stubble
patch of lot 5, in the form of crow tracks in the light snow, holes
pecked in the earth, and at one place spatters of blood and tufts of
mouse hair. Hawks feed habitually on these mice. In January,
1898, when there were several inches of snow on the ground,’a red-
tailed hawk (Pl. X, fig. 1) shot in the road by the negro cabin held in
its talons the warm body of a meadow mouse. November 15, 1900, a
marsh hawk skimming over lot 2 suddenly dived into the brown broom-
sedge. As it rose it was killed and a meadow mouse dropped from its
clutch. In its stomach the head and hind quarters of another were
found. This species of hawk is undoubtedly the most useful mouser
on the farm and should have due credit, for mice cause much injury
there to fruit trees, sweet potatoes, and grain. The short-eared owl
(Pl. X, fig. 2) has several times been observed preying upon meadow
mice. This bird; the marsh hawk, and the red-shouldered hawk, which
are all excellent mousers and rarely attack poultry or birds, are con-
tinually made to pay with their lives for the depredations of the real
poultry thieves of the hawk and owl tribe—the Cooper and sharp-
shinned hawks and the great horned owl. The illustration of a short-
CULTIVATED FRUIT. 55
eared owl here given is of a bird that had just made vicarious atonement
for depredations on the poultry by the great horned owl.
Rabbits——The marsh hawk and other large species prey on rabbits.
In the last week of December, 1897, a marsh hawk was shot which had
just killed one of unusual size. The crow regularly feeds on young
rabbits. On March 27, 1901, several crows that were congregated in
some grass land at a point 150 yards behind the house were frightened
away. An empty rabbit's nest found on the spot and stains of blood
on the broom-sedge told what they had been doing. The rabbit is 2
nuisance on the farm. It often ruins hotbeds of sweet potatoes, cuts
tortuous paths through wheat fields, and nibbles cabbages and turnips.
Not more than 20 miles from Marshall Hall rabbits girdled and killed
2,000 young pear trees in an orchard of 4,000 within two months.
The food of the 645 birds examined shows only 1.72 percent of ver-
tebrate food. The reason for so small a proportion is the fact that
the collection included only 19 birds that could be expected to feed on
flesh.
IV.—FRUIT.
CULTIVATED VARIETIES.
Fruit forms with many common birds an important element of
food. Of the 645 stomachs of native birds collected at Marshall Hall
139 contained either wild or cultivated fruit. The greatest interest
naturally centers in the cultivated varieties.
Strawberries.—The earliest fruit on the farm is the strawberry. It
usually ripens about the middle of May and would naturally be
expected to tempt the birds. With a view to measuring their depre-
dations on the crop, two visits were made to Marshall Hall between
the 13th and the 20th of May of 1899 and 1900. A strawberry patch
in the BrYan kitchen garden was watched for several days in the
early morning, when birds were feeding most busily, but although
catbirds, orchard orioles, and other notably frugivorous species were
all around the patch, not one of the birds entered it for berries. On
the Hungerford place, adjacent to the wooded dell tenanted by the
colony of crow blackbirds already referred to, there was a large
strawberry patch, from around which were collected 13 blackbirds, 13
catbirds, and 2 orchard orioles, but only one of them, a catbird, had
eaten strawberries. On the previous day the patch was watched for
several hours. Only a solitary catbird entered it and he did not take
a berry. These and other observations showed that birds at Marshall
Hall did not harm the strawberry crop, but, on the other hand, pro-
tected it by destroying ground-beetles, which, as has been said, injure
the fruit. If catbirds were fond of strawberries, they would have
made sad havoc on these farms, for they fairly swarmed amid the
56 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
tangled vegetation on the river front (PI. IV, fig. 1). Their liking
for fruit is well known, and it seems strange that they should pre-
fer winter-cured smilax berries to strawberries; yet of 13 individuals
collected at this time 5 had eaten smilax berries that had hung on
the bushes all winter.
Cherries.— During cherry time 227 birds were collected, 23 of which,
comprising crows, crow blackbirds, catbirds, cedar birds, brown thrash-
ers, and kingbirds, had fed on cherries and little else. Cherries ripen
from the 30th of May to the 15th of June and remain on the trees for
about a month. Some interesting field observations corroborated the
results of the examination. On the Bryan farm cherry trees are so
numerous that an observer can not keep track of the birds that fly to
them, but on the Hungerford farm, where the trees are few, there is no
difficulty in taking notes. One large black ox-heart tree in a hedge
row several hundred yards from the river was watched June 15, 1899.
From sunrise till sunset there was seldom an interval of ten minutes
when it was empty. Catbirds few up to it from the matted vines
on the river front; thrashers came from inland thickets; and king-
birds flew over from apple and pear orchards. A flock of half a
dozen cedar birds every now and then came to it and fed eagerly, and
a crow made it a base of supplies for her greedy brood in a neighbor.
ing sycamore. The colony of crow blackbirds that had nested in the
adjacent dell were, however, the most regular and frequent visitors.
They had taken their recently fledged young to a swamp a quarter of a
mile away, and all day long flew back and forth in a ‘bee line’ between
that and the cherry tree, often meeting one another in the journey and
sometimes numbering three or four in the tree at one time.
As an experiment looking toward the possible protection of cherries,
a screech owl with a clipped wing was placed in a cherry tree near the
Bryan farmhouse. Several catbirds that came to pillage made an out-
cry at first, but soon attacked the cherries, regardless of the owl. An
English sparrow, a red-eyed vireo, and two orchard orioles that entered
the tree were at first much disturbed, but were all eating cherries
within fifteen minutes. Since the screech owl does not feed on birds
to a considerable extent, they probably did not recognize in him a
dangerous enemy. The presence of a great horned owl or a Cooper
hawk would doubtless have had a completely deterrent effect. The
cherry crop at Marshall Hall is not marketed, nor is one hundredth
of it ever picked; the proportion consumed by birds is, consequently,
of no economic importance.
Other orchard fruit— When the cherry season was over the birds that
had shown themselves notably frugivorous were expected to turn their
attention to the orchards of plums, peaches, pears, and apples. While
these fruits were ripe 161 birds were collected, but not one appeared
CULTIVATED FRUIT. 57
to have molested them. Many had taken fruit, but had drawn on
nature’s supply instead of man’s. All the trees in the orchard were
watched, but birds apparently did not rob them, a fact in striking
contrast with the notorious pillaging by birds in the fruit-growing
regions of California. In California birds also do much damage in
spring by eating the buds and blossoms of fruit trees, but at Marshall
Hall no appreciable loss is caused in this way. White-throated spar-
rows occasionally feed on buds and blossoms, and on one occasion
(April 25, 1901) three of these birds were seen mutilating pear blos-
soms in the kitchen garden, but beyond this no example of such
depredations was observed.
Grapes.—Grapes are not raised for market at Marshall Hall. In the
Bryan kitchen garden there is a trellis for family use, but birds did no
appreciable injury to the grapes that grew on it.
Tomatoes.—Catbirds were reported to be ruining the tomato crop
on the Hungerford farm during the third week of June, 1899. The
place was visited and every tomato that had reddened at all was found
to have been pecked. The injury was causing heavy loss to the farm,
for the fruit at that time broughta high price. The patch was watched
for several hours, but not a catbird entered it. Nine chickens, how-
ever, stole up from a small house on the shore and went from plant
to plant, eating greedily. To make doubly sure that catbirds had
no share in the mischief, 15 individuals were collected from the neigh-
boring delland the bushes about the patch, and examination was made
of the stomach contents. No trace of tomatoes was found.
Melons.—The only fruit grown for market that suffered from the
depredations of native birds was the melon, and it was attacked by
only one species—the crow. In numbers from three or four to a
dozen at a time crows began to injure melons about August | and con-
tinued for three weeks, attacking both watermelons and cantaloupes,
but preferring the former. Each crow would peck at a melon a dozen
times or so and then pass on to another. If no protective measures
had been taken, the crop would often have,been a total loss, and in
spite of all efforts from 5 to 20 percent of the melons grown at all
distant from buildings were punctured (fig. 21). Carcasses of crows,
strings with long white streamers attached, an improvised miniature
windmill that revolved and struck noisily against a piece of metal, and
a bit of bright tin suspended from a string so that it turned with
every breath of air and reflected the sun about the field were some of
the devices used to frighten the wary and suspicious marauders. In
1873, 1874, and 1875, when the melon crop was so important that 4 or
5 acres, containing from 3,000 to 4,000 hills, were given up to it, the
method of protection used in the rice fields of the South was adopted:
from sunrise to sunset a negro with an old musket and plenty of pow-
58 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
der watched from a brush shelter in the middle of the field and, when-
ever a crow appeared, frightened it away with a thundering report.
If the field was left unguarded for any length of time, the crows were
sure to make havoc among the melons. Since they would never come
within gunshot if they knew anybody was watching, attempts were
made to destroy them by a stratagem; two men would enter the brush
house and one of them would soon leave, hoping to delude the crows
into thinking that the house was empty, so that they would venture
within range of the second man’s gun. The plan worked only in the
first few trials, however. The farmers at Marshall Hall maintain that
crows can count up to three, for.they could not be hoodwinked unless
three men left the house and a fourth remained to shoot.
Fic, 21.—Melons damaged by crows.
WILD FRUIT.
Wild fruit formed 10.12 percent of the food of the 645 birds col-
lected, and had been eaten by 120. Both examination of stomachs and
notes of field work showed how important.an element it is in the food
supply of many species.
Smilax.—The catbird, which, with the possible exception of the cedar
bird, is the most conspicuous frugivorous species on the farm, ate in
May, when it arrived from the South, the winter-cured berries of
smilax. Out of 13 individuals collected May 17-20, 1899, 5 had made
from 15 to.40 percent of their diet on these husks in preference, as
has already been said, to the feast spread in the strawberry patch.
WILD FRUIT. 59
During May cedar birds and crow blackbirds also relished them, and
the robin, when hard pressed on its arrival, duri ing the last of Feb-
ruary, was seen to eat them eagerly.
Mulberries.-—The first wild fruit that offers a freshly ripened supply
at Marshall Hall is the mulberry, and it lasts from the end of May
until the end of June. On May 29, 1896, observations were made of
birds feeding in a large mulberry tree in the wooded gully of the hog
lot. A pair of downy woodpeckers that bred in a willow stub near
by were twice noted eating the berries. A Baltimore oriole, probably
a late migrant, fed on them eagerly. Several pairs of orchard orioles
and kingbirds which nested together near the house came to the tree
at frequent intervals. The hingbirds would balance themselves on the
topmost sprays and pluck the berries as gingerly as if they had been
insects. Two pairs of red-eyed vireos and a pair of white-eyed vireos
haunted the mulberry and adjacent trees, now and then taking a berry,
but most of the time apparently eating insects. A cardinal that
nested on the shore of the calamus swamp, 200 yards distant, made one
trip to the tree, but was accidentally frightened out of any subsequent
visits. Crows came from the woods 25 rods away and three blue jays
journeyed at least a quarter of a mile for the fruit. Song sparrows
frequently hopped about on the ground beneath the tree and picked
up fallen fruit. A flock of eight cedar birds fairly gorged themselves.
At intervals they would repair to cedar trees on the brink of the
gully and sit as motionless as if they were literally stuffed, until diges-
tion relieved their repletion. Then they would apparently wake up,
preen their pretty plumage, and, regaining activity one after another,
would presently with one accord fly back to the berries with renewed
appetite. They appeared to spend their whole time alternately feast-
ing and napping. The catbirds were about as gluttonous, but notso
lazy. They came to the tree from the neighborhood, from the house,
and from the river bluff. Hardly a period of five minutes passed in
which not one was among the branches, and three or four were often
present at once. They were so tame that it was possible to see just
how they fed. One would pluck a berry, sometimes an inch long, bolt
it whole, and then stand almost choking, with mouth wide open, while
the berry, which made a great lump in its gullet, slowly passed into its
stomach. Then with evident relief it would hop about and perhaps
sing a few bars of song. There was no luxurious idleness among
the catbirds. As soon as they had eaten they either sang or flew
away to resume nest building, incubation, or the feeding of their
young. Mulberries formed at this season the greater part of their
food.
A list follows of the birds that were observed feeding on this fruit
or that were found by examination to have eaten it.
60 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
List of birds feeding on mulberries.
Blue jay. Cardinal. Downy woodpecker.
Crow. Carolina chickadee. Cedar bird.
Crow blackbird. Song sparrow. Catbird.
Orchard oriole. Red-eyed vireo. Kingbird.
Baltimore oriole. White-eyed vireo. Bobwhite.
Raspberries and blackberries.—The black raspberry, the dewberry,
and the blackberry, which are the wild fruits that, in the order given,
ripen next, are too plentiful and too widely distributed for much
remunerative field observation. The following list of birds that ate
them was prepared chiefly from stomach examination:
List of birds feeding on raspberries and blackberries.
Bobwhite. Brown thrasher. Kingbird.
Summer redbird. Catbird. Red-headed woodpecker.
Cardinal. Orchard oriole. Cedar bird.
Song sparrow. Bluebird.
Field sparrow. Crow.
A few field notes on the destruction of these fruits were made, how-
ever. Catbirds were seen, May 30, 1896, in black raspberry bushes
near the house, eating half a dozen berries apiece. During June, 1899,
lot 2 was overrun with a network of dewberry vines. Here, on the
17th, bobwhites were observed walking from vine to vine, picking the
berries in a systematic fashion. During 1896 blackberries fruited
heavily, and birds were not slow to take advantage of the generous
food supply. July 12 a red-headed woodpecker was observed to come
and feed on the berries with catbirds and orchard orioles, and a king-
bird was seen to fly down to a bush, hover beside it, and pluck a
berry. In early August, 1898, two field sparrows were seen in several
instances selecting fruit which had dried on the bushes in preference
to that which was fresh and juicy. They may have done this to obtain
the seeds of the berry and extract their meat. A number of song
sparrows picked up blackberries from the ground as they had mul-
berries. Since this species is often very abundant in cultivated patches
of blackberries and takes 10 percent of its food from this fruit in its
season, the habit of feeding on fallen berries may be fortunate for the
horticulturist. Rubus fruits are not raised for market at Marshall
‘Hall, hence it is unimportant whether the birds eat them or not; if
they were, and if there were no other fruit available, the abundant
frugivorous birds would probably decrease the profits considerably.
Elderberries.—Elderberries ripen next, usually during the latter half
of July. There are so few of them on the farm that the record is
scanty, but field notes made August 5, 1898, show how much they are
WILD FRUIT. 61
relished. A large elder bush was watched from 1.40 to 2.50 p. m.
The observations may be thus summarized:
Detailed account of birds feeding on elderberries.
1.45: A song sparrow hopped along under the bush and picked up a fallen berry.
1.51: A downy woodpecker alighted on the main stalk and, ascending within reach
of a cluster, ate 2 berries.
1.58: A female orchard oriole came and fed.
2.00: A catbird ate several berries.
2.03: A red-eyed vireo took 1 berry.
2.09: A catbird ate 3 berries.
2.11: A pair of red-eyed vireos flew into the bush; one took a berry and scurried
away, but the other remained long enough to eat 4 berries.
2.12: A male redbird dashed in, took a berry, and dashed out.
2.13: A crow dropped clumsily into the bush, but after.one peck at the fruit espied
me and flew away with loud clamor.
2.15: A catbird took 1 berry.
2.16: A white-eyed vireo took 3 berries.
2.20: A catbird took a berry.
2.23: A female summer redbird came shyly and hurriedly ate several berries.
2.24: A catbird took a berry.
2.25: Another catbird picked at a cluster rapidly for one minute, swallowing in that
time 20 berries.
2.27: A red-eyed vireo, poised in the air like a humming bird, ate several berries
from the same cluster.
2.28: A female cardinal ate a berry.
2.30: A catbird ate 10 berries in a minute, rested, and
2.33: Took several more.
2.35: A female summer redbird, bending a berry stalk under her weight, leisurely
plucked 5 berries from the drooping cluster.
2.37: A catbird ate 4 berries, sat and preened its feathers, and
2.50: Ate 17 more.
Wild cherries.—The wild black cherry (Prunus serotina) is plentiful
at Marshall Hall, but as a rule birds did not congregate about it as they
do in more northern States. The following species were found
feeding on it:
List of birds feeding on wild cherries.
Catbird. Song sparrow. Orchard oriole.
Kingbird. English sparrow. Red-headed woodpecker.
Pheebe. Crow.
Blueberries.— Blueberries, though a staple article of birds’ diet, are so
scarce at Marshall Hall as to be unimportant. Tufted titmice and cat-
birds have been noted feeding on them at the southern corner of lot 4.
Other wild fruits.— With the waning of summer there comes such an
abundance and variety of wild fruit that birds scatter over wide areas
of the farm, and observation of their feeding habits yields only desul-
tory results. Thereare, altogether, more than a score of wild fruit-
ing plants at Marshall Hall, which furnish food to at least 30 kinds of
62 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
birds. Some of them, such as sassafras, blackberry, elder, and wild
cherry, drop their berries shortly after ripening them, while others,
such as hackberry, catbrier, and sumac, keep theirs well into win-
ter and even until spring. The bountiful supply of late fruit is most
noticeable just after the falling of the leaves. Then one may see large
trees festooned with the burdened vines of bittersweet, woodbine, cat-
brier, and wild grape. Besides the climbing plants, many shrubs and
trees are laden with fruit. The low horse-nettle is bright with yellow
berries; the rank pokeweed bends under long grape-like bunches of
dark purple fruit; and the persimmon is hung with yellow globes.
The sour gum has dropped its deep-blue berries and light-red leaves
together, but the holly is set thick with scarlet clusters that will glow
all winter amid its shining green.
Some of the tastes exhibited by birds in their selection of fruit are
interesting and singular. Catbirds and vireos have been known to
pass by ripe blackberries and elderberries and choose green wild cher-
ries and sassafras berries. Many birds eat sumac berries, which are
practically all seeds and would seem to be about as satisfactory food
as so much gravel. Fully a dozen species select the berries of black
alder, which are as bitter as quinine. Cedar berries, a favorite food
with birds, have an effect on the human system like cantharides, while
the berries of pokeweed, nigktshade, and poison ivy contain danger-
ous poisons. If birds are not immune from the toxic effects of these
berries, one may question whether they do not take them for stimu-
lation, as man takes tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
Poison ivy is eaten by practically all the frugivorous birds of the
‘farm. A crow that was shot November 15, 1900, had 144 poison-
ivy seeds in its stomach. The pokeberry is also a favorite fruit.
Mockingbirds and catbirds that were collected had fed on it so freely
that their intestines were discolored by its juice. During February,
1900, the snow was stained in several places by bright red spots with
a hole in the center an inch or more deep, at the bottom of which was
a mass of fruit pulp and pokeberry seeds. These deposits proved to
be excreta of cardinal grosbeaks that had eaten the berries, the heat
from the droppings having sufficed to melt the hole in the snow.
Nightshade berries (Solanum nigrum) were eaten by several birds of
the farm, especially by the bobwhite. During February and Novem-
- ber, 1900, a few sapsuckers, downy woodpeckers, bluebirds, and
myrtle warblers, together with dozens of flickers and robins, and
scores of cedar birds and purple finches, fed on the spicy, stimulating
berries of the red cedar.
Distribution of seeds by birds.—The large consumption of wild fruit
results in a wide distribution of seeds, which are voided by birds and
germinate where they are dropped. Some observations on crows will
WILD FRUIT. 63
illustrate this dispersion. On November 17, 1899, a large flock on the
wing was noticed in the distance, at a point opposite Fort Washing-
ton, several miles above Marshall Hall. They came on down the river
in a line that at times stretched almost from one bank to the other.
When they neared Marshall Hall they circled several times and finally
alighted on the shore of the Bryan farm, at the mouth of Persimmon
Branch. The flock numbered at least a thousand, and hoarse caws
and croaks gave evidence that it was made up to some extent of fish
crows. After the birds had remained on the shore fifteen minutes
they were put to flight by a farmer’s boy, and flew on down the river,
lessening to specks, and finally disappearing on the horizon. Going
to the place where they had alighted, I found the sandy beach cut up
_for more than a hundred yards with their tracks. Many led out to
the water, and floating black feathers here and there showed where
baths had been taken. The most interesting trace of their sojourn,
however, was several hundred pellets of fruit material, which they
had ejected through their mouths and dropped on the
ground. These pellets (fig. 22) were about an inch in
length and half an inch in diameter. They were of
a deep purplish color, due to the fruit of woodbine,
wild grape, and pokeberry, of which they were
mainly composed. In 50 pellets collected there were
only 11 seeds of other plants—namely, holly, bitter-
sweet, and poison ivy. Pokeberry seeds were by far
the most numerous. Mr. A. J. Pieters, of the
Botanical Division of the Department of Agriculture,
germinated some of them, thus demonstrating une woe ejected
fact that they were distributed uninjured, by crow.
Examination of the pellets showed the ee fact that they
were made up not only of seeds (fig. 23) and skin, but largely of fruit
pulp in an undigested state; indeed, many pellets appeared to be com-
pacted masses of mashed or squeezed berries. It seems strange that
the birds should have rid themselves of a substance that still contained
a good deal of nutriment.
Little is known of the distribution of fruit seeds by crows during
migration, but it is certain that they do this work effectively while
they fly to and from the roosts where they congregate in winter, for
their feeding grounds often cover an area stretching out on all sides
from the roost for 50 miles or more. It appears highly probable that
the crows which are found in winter at Marshall Hall roost at Wood-
ridge, D. C., some 15 miles distant. There, in the midst of several
acres of woodland, a crow dormitory is established, in which prob-
ably 100,000 crows sleep every winter night. It was visited in Febru-
ary, 1901, and the ground was found to be strewn with disgorged
64 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
pellets containing the seeds of poison ivy, poison sumac and other
sumacs, smilax, cedar, sour gum, and flowering dogwood. Some pel-
lets, also, were made up of the hulls of corn and oats.
The distribution of fruiting plants illustrated by the crow is effected,
though usually in a slighter degree, by all other frugivorous birds.
Areas from which such plants and shrubs have been removed are in a
short time replanted by birds. . At Marshall Hall such plants thus
assisted are constantly striving to secure a foothold on the arable
land. This scattering of fruit seeds is illustrated by some observations
made March 27, 1901. Under a large black walnut tree, remote from
other woody vegetation and near the negro cabin, a two hours’ search
brought to view 172 fruit seeds, including mulberry, cultivated cherry,
G @ @-
Smooth Sumae
(Rhus gl abre)
Rough-leaved CorneL.
(Cornus asperifolic) Catbrter
Smilax rotuncifotia )
Plowerbig Dogwood
(Cornus florida) } (©) ee)
Poison Ty
(Rhus toxicodendron-)
@
Sour Gum _ Red Cedar
Nyssa’ aquatic ) (Juntperus virginionus)
Fie. 23.—Some common seeds found in crow pellets.
wild black cherry, wild grape, woodbine, pokeberry, cedar, sassafras,
blackberry, and sumac. Under a large cedar in the middle of lot 2
seeds of the following additional fruiting plants were collected: Elder,
hackberry, bittersweet, sour gum, smilax, blueberry, flowering dog-
wood, and poison ivy.
The most striking examples of trees planted by birds at Marshall
Hall are the ox-heart cherry. trees that extend along the river front
for half a mile. Almost as notable, perhaps, are the tall cedar trees
which stand in long rows between adjacent fields (see Pl. XII, fig. 1).
Scattered over the old pastures, also, little cedar trees, like fox brushes,
attest the work of the winged planters, but in the arable land the
rotation of crops kills all except such as may start along fence rows.
Bull. 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. PLaTE XI.
Fig. 2.—CORN INJURED BY CROWS.
Bull, 17, Biological Survey, U, S. Dept. of Agriculture. PLATE XII.
Fic. 1.—CORNFIELD, LOT 5.
Fia, 2.—WHEAT STuBBLE, LOT 3.
The line of trees in the middle-ground marks the course of Persimmon Branch.
GRAIN. 65
Sassafras planted by birds on arable land is not so easily exterminated.
On the Hungerford farm it almost choked a peach orchard of several
acres. On the Bryan farm it attained such a growth in a cornfield
previously used for grass that it had to be cut down with brush hooks
(Pl. XI, fig. 1). In another part of the same lot high-bush blackber-
ries sown by birds had to be similarly eradicated.
V.—GRAIN.
Grain had entered into the food of 38 out of the 645 birds examined.
Of these 21 had picked up waste kernels and 17 had secured valuable
grain, which, however, amounted to but 1.25 per cent of the food of
all the birds.
Crow.—The crow (fig. 24) is by
all odds the worst pilferer of the
cornfield. Every year at Marshall
Hall, as elsewhere, a part of the
field must be replanted because of
his ‘ pickings and stealings.’ In
1899 the replanting was more ex-
tensive than usual, requiring on
the 39-acre field 1 bushel 23 pecks,
46 percent of the 34 bushels origi-
nally planted. This unusual ratio
was probably caused by the fail-
ure of the cherry crop, which left
the crow short of food. The pro-
tective device of tarring seed corn
is employed to some extent on the
Hungerford farm. In June, 1899,
I planted two rows of corn, one
tarred, on the edge of lot 4, near
a nest of young crows. When the Fig. 24.—Common crow.
seed sprouted 3 kernels were pulled from the untarred row, and 7
plants were uprooted from the tarred row, the kernels of which were
left intact. On May 30, 1901, a field of sprouting tarred corn on the
Hungerford place was visited. In spite of the fact that a field of
unprotected corn adjoined it, crows came to this field, perhaps because
it was nearer woods. After three of them had walked about among
the hills for fifteen minutes the place was inspected. Only three
plants bad been pulled up, but in each case the grain had been
removed. It may be mentioned here that at Wayland, Mass., during
June, 1901, crows pulled a large quantity of tarred corn, but did not eat
it. The corn there had been coated with wood ashes after the tarring
7222—No. 17—-02—— 5
66 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
and dropped by a corn planter. Some farmers object to tarring for
fear of clogging the planter. At Marshall Hall lime is used instead
of ashes, but most farmers who tar their corn discard the machine and
plant in hills. é
The injury to corn by crows at other seasons than sprouting time is,
as a general thing, comparatively insignificant, but in some years it
has been important when the ears were in the milk. Unfortunately
at the worst times no observations were made, though crows were
seen each summer feeding on corn in this stage of development, tear-
ing open the ears and picking out the kernels in rapid succession
(Pl. XI, fig. 2). In the National Zoological Park at Washington dur-
ing the summer of 1896, their depredations on an acre of corn in the
milk were watched and 50 percent of the crop was found to have. been
ruined. The only scarecrows that proved effective at Marshall Hall
were dead crows and strings stretched on poles around the field and hung
with long white streamers. Although in fall the number of marauders
is greatly increased by reenforcements from the North, ripe corn sus-
tains less injury than roasting ears. One reason is the fact that the
extracting of a few kernels froma ripe ear does not cause the rest
to rot, as is the case with roasting ears. Another reason is the abun-
dance of fall fruit. Wheat also suffers comparatively little. When
it is ripening, cherries and sprouting corn divert the crows’ attention.
After it is cut and gathered into the shock, however, they often join the
English sparrows in removing the kernels from the cap sheaves. In
November, 1899, they attacked newly sown wheat also, cleaning every
kernel off a patch of wet ground where the drill had failed to cover
the seed. They were also observed in several instances pulling up
sprouting wheat. Oats are injured even less than wheat, though
crows have been noticed feeding on them at harvest time.
Crow Blackbird.—The crow blackbird (fig. 25) takes grain to the
extent of 45 percent of its food, as Professor Beal has shown, and is
a bird that needs watching. The farmers at Marshall Hall complained
that it injured sprouting corn, but observations did not show the
damage to be serious. The only birds concerned in this work were those
in the breeding colony in the dell on the Hungerford farm. Except in
rare instances, they were not seen visiting the Bryan farm at sprouting
time; consequently they could not be held responsible for serious
injury there. On May 18, 1899, they were watched in their dell. The
parent birds kept going to and from their nests, which held eggs or
newly hatched young, and many foraged in an adjacent field of sprout-
ing corn. Nine old birds and four nestlings were collected, but only
one, an adult, had taken corn, and that one in trifling proportion. On
May 30, 1901, the colony was again visited. The young were then
feathered and old enough to eat vegetable food. The most available
supply was a field of sprouting corn unprotected by tar, that lay within
GRAIN. 67
a hundred yards of the dell. It was watched from 1 p. m. till 6 p.m,
but although the birds often flew over it and in two cases alighted in
it, they apparently did it no injury, and a careful search for pulled
corn showed not a plant disturbed. Blackbirds probably did some
mischief to corn in the milk, however, and were often seen stealing
from the shock, but these offenses were trivial in comparison with
their attacks on sprouting winter wheat. During November, 1900, a
flock of from 2,000 to 3,000 pulled wheat on the Bryan farm, and only
continual use of the shotgun saved the crop. Ateach report they would
fly to the oak woods bordering lot 5, where they fed on acorns. Nine
birds collected had eaten acorns and wheat in about equal proportions.
The flock must have taken daily at least half an ounce of food apiece,
Fig. 25.—Crow blackbird.
and therefore, if the specimens examined were representative, must in
a week have made away with 217 pounds of sprouting wheat, a loss
that would entail at harvest time a shortage of at least ten times as
much. When wheat and oats were harvested no appreciable loss was
possible, as only a few blackbirds remained on the farm, and, in fact,
these few appeared to be feeding on fruit or insects, or, when they did
eat grain, to be taking chiefly waste kernels. During June of 1898,
1899, 1900, and 1901, when wheat was ripening or being harvested,
blackbirds came from their nesting dell to the Bryan farm, but only in
few instances were they seen in the wheat fields. OnJune 15 and 16,
when oats and wheat were ready to cut on the Hungerford farm, the
colony was closely watched. The young were on the wing and the
68 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
whole flock was expected to resort to the grain fields, but none were
seen to enter them. On June 18, however, when oats were being cut,
several birds were noted feeding on them in two instances.
English Sparrow.—The English sparrow (fig. 26) is the most highly
granivorous bird on the farm. The stomachs of 53 birds—17 nest-
lings and 36 adults—were collected. Grain had been eaten by 8 of the
young—a large proportion, for nearly all nestlings are almost exclu-
sively insectivorous. It formed 86 percent of the food of the adults,
all but two having taken it. Six had selected oats, 14 wheat, and 15
corn. The number of English sparrows on the two farms varied from
200 to 1,000. They fed on grain whenever and wherever it was attain-
able. They did not appear to hurt sprouting fields, but did con-
siderable harm to standing crops. In 1898 lot + was in wheat, and
Bld
Fic. 26.—English sparrow.
about the middle of June, when it was nearly ready for cutting, a strip
200 yards long beside the fence near the storage barn was found
broken down by sparrows. The loss by this mischief was even greater
than that by their continual thefts from the rest of the field. A year
later they ruined in the same way a strip of wheat several yards wide,
extending from the negro cabin to Persimmon Branch, and also sec-
tions of oat fields on the upper part of the Hungerford farm. They
attacked both wheat and oats in the shock, and stole much of the
grain in the cap sheaves. They were seen feeding on corn in the
milk, but probably selected ears that had already been torn open by
crows; Dr. A. K. Fisher, however, has observed English sparrows at
Chevy Chase, Md., opening and eating the tip ends of ears of corn
GRAIN. 69
without any aid from crows. Whenever stock was fed with grain
they were always on hand to get their portion. They ate corn with
the pigs in the hog lot, and often outnumbered the little chickens in
the back yard around their rations of cracked corn or Indian mush.
Not satisfied with regular feeding times, they drew on the source of
supply, the corn house, and could be seen any day in the year, but
most commonly in winter, flying out of it, sometimes by the score.
Other birds.—So far as is known, no other birds of the farm com-
mitted serious depredations on grain, though several occasionally did
trifling harm. The red-winged blackbird did not disturb sprouting
grain, but was seen in the first week of August, 1898, to visit corn-
fields in flocks of from 12 to 20 and eat from roasting ears. Gold-
finches were troublesome in ripening oats on the Hungerford farm
during the last week of June, 1899. A flock of a hundred*spent most
of the day swaying on bending oat stems. Four were collected, but
singularly enough no grain was in their stomachs. On an acre of the
field where the birds usually assembled, 5 percent of the crop was
lost from the breaking down of stalks.
If the mourning dove and the bobwhite do harm to grain it is so slight
as to escape notice. The dove, however, has been taken with a few
kernels of sprouting wheat in its crop.” Both birds eat a good deal of
waste grain in stubble-fields. On August 31, 1898, in lot +, there was
a flock of at least 30 doves in the wheat stubble of the Bryan farm, and
at the same time there were two smaller flocks on the Hungerford
place. In November, 1899, the flock on the upper part of the farm fed
with the bobwhites on wheat stubble, and, like them, did not appear to
relish corn dropped from the ear in fields where they were searching
for weed seed. There was considerable diversity of feeding habits
among different flocks of bobwhites on the two farms. One flock on the
Bryan farm during November and December, 1900, was seldom seen
on a patch of wheat stubble adjacent to their cover, the oak woods of
lot 5. Hawks were numerous there, however, and may have frightened
the birds away from what would ordinarily have been a tempting
feeding ground. A large covey on the lower part of the Hungerford
farm, where no wheat had been raised, fed entirely on weed seed,
but one at the upper end spent about all the feeding time in wheat
stubble. This covey had a habit of sleeping in a peach orchard, as
was attested by little rings of dung showing where the birds had
squatted in a circle with heads out and tails in. From six of these
rings, representing as many days’ feeding, 300 droppings were col-
lected. Remains of wheat, or more strictly speaking, fragments of
bran from one-fifth of a millimeter to 5 millimeters in length, formed
85 percent of them. A bird of this covey had in its crop 160 whole
4In Essex County, N. J., the dove does much damage in newly sown fields of
buckwheat.
70 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
grains, and in its stomach other wheat half digested, all amounting to
91 percent of its food. The next year bobwhites were noted feeding
in wheat stubble in lot 3 (PI. XII, fig. 2). In November, 1900, observa-
tions were made in « cornfield in which the tops of the stalks had been
removed for fodder, leaving the ears attached to low stalks. In many
places kernels had dropped to the ground, but the hobwhites that
frequented the field to procure weed seed apparently did not touch
them. These desultory data would seem to indicate that the bob-
white takes only waste wheat and does not relish corn, but observa-
tions made in November, 1901, on lot 5 of the Bryan farm, when the
corn was in the stack (Pl. XII, fig. 1), does not confirm this supposi-
tion; for in this case the birds fed to a certain extent on the waste
kernels of corn scattered on the ground.
The meadowlark is much less granivorous than these two species,
but it often picked up wheat in stubble-fields just after harvest
and late in the fall. One specimen obtained November 29, 1900, con-
tained 70 percent of wheat. The cardinal was occasionally seen feed-
ing on waste wheat and corn along the edge of stubble-fields. The
English sparrow, the crow, the crow blackbird, the red-wing, and the
cowbird are also stubble feeders. On the 5th of August, 1898, fully
a thousand crow blackbirds with a few redwings were noted picking
up waste grain in the wheat and oat stubble of the Hungerford farm.
If such a horde of these birds were present at harvest time, complaints
would be made against them as serious as those now heard from the
Mississippi Valley.
During the blizzard of February, 1900, several birds obtained food
from the droppings of farm animals. English sparrows and crows
were seen picking corn from dung in the hog pen on the Hungerford
farm, and meadowlarks, horned larks, doves, and cardinals were
noticed taking it from cow droppings in an open pasture.
The native sparrows, unlike the English sparrows, have little or no
liking for grain. In a field of wheat on the Bryan farm 5 English
sparrows and 19 native sparrows, including song, field, chipping, and
grasshopper sparrows, were collected, just before and just after the
crop was cut. All the English sparrows were gorged with wheat, but
only 2 native sparrows—a chipping sparrow and a grasshopper spar-
row—had eaten it, and they had taken only a single kernel apiece.
Moreover, when winter wheat sprouted, the hosts of native sparrows
from the North that were running over the fields could not be detected
doing it any injury.
VI.— WEED SEED.
Weed seed is a staple article of diet for practically all seed-eating
birds. It formed 18 percent of the food of the whole number of birds
collected, and had been eaten by 162. Lists of these birds and of the
41 kinds of seeds that they selected are appended.
WEED
SEED. 71
List of weed-sved eaters and weed seed eaten,
SPECIES OF BIRDS WHOSE “STOMACHS CONTAINED WEED SEED.
Bobwhite. Rusty blackbird. Chipping sparrow.
Mourning dove. Crow blackbird. Field sparrow.
Horned lark. Goldfinch. Junco.
Bobolink. Savanna sparrow. Song sparrow.
Cowbird. Grasshopper sparrow. Cardinal.
Red-winged blackbird. White-throated sparrow. Carolina chickadee.
Meadowlark. Tree sparrow.
SPECIES OF WEED SEED EATEN.
Bull thistle (Carduus lanceolatus).
Beggar-ticks ( Bidens frondosa).
Sneezeweed ( Heleniuin autumnale).
Ragweed (.{mbrosia artemisiefolia, fig. 27 ).
Giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida).
Sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus) .
Dandelion ( Taraxacum taraxacum, fig. 27 ).
Wild lettuce (Lactiuca spicata).
Black bindweed (Polygonum convolviulis,
fig. 27).
Pennsylvania persicaria ( Polygonum penn-
sylvanicum).
Knotweed (Polygonum «aviculare).
Climbing false buckwheat (Polygonum
scandens).
Bitter dock (Rumew obtusifolius).
Curled dock (Rumex crispus).
Sheep sorrel (Rume.w acelosella).
Crab-grass (Panicum sanguinale).
Pigeon-grass (Chatochlou glauca, fig 27).
Green foxtail grass (Chetochloa viridis).
Broom-sedge (Andropogon rirginicus).
Sheathed rush-grass (Sporobolus raginie-
florus).
Poverty grass (Aristida sp.).
Yard grass (Eleusine indica).
Bermuda grass (Capriola dactylon).
Paspalum (Paspalum sp. ).
Sedge (Cyperus).
Sassafras (Sassafras sassafras).
Blackberry (Rubus villosus).
Pokeberry (Phytolacea decandra).
Partridge pea (Cassia chamecrista).
Sweet clover (Melilotus alba).
Tick-trefoil (Meibomia nudifiora).
Snowdrops ( Kneiffia fruticosa).
Chickweed (Alsine media).
Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus,
27).
fig.
Trumpet creeper ( Tecoma radicans).
Yellow sorrel ( Oxalis stricta).
Rib-grass (Plantago lanceolata). =
Spurge (Euphorbia maculata, fig. 27).
eaten by birds: u, bindweed;
b, lamb’s-quarters; ¢, purslane;
d, amaranth; e, spotted spurge;
J, ragweed; g, pigeon-grass; A,
dandelion.
Lamb’s-quarters ( Chenopodium album, fig.
27).
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea, fig. 27).
Jewel-weed (Impatiens).
72 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
WEED DESTRUCTION BY NATIVE SPARROWS.
Spring —The farmer’s strongest allies in his campaign against weeds
are the various species of native sparrows (PI. XIII), which are a
potent aid every month in the year, though chiefly in the colder
months. The value of their work, obvious in fall and winter, is less
easily appraised in spring and early summer, but may be suggested
by a few notes.
The sparrows that breed on the farm have to content themselves
early in the spring with seeds left from the preceding year, but by
the middle of May they find in fields that have lain fallow all winter,
or that were in corn the previous season, a plentiful supply of the
ripening seeds of chickweed and, a little later, of yellow sorrel. Song
sparrows were seen (May 18, 1899) on the edges of such fields helping
themselves liberally from opening chickweed pods. Chipping spar-
rows were noted (May 30, 1896) far out in a patch of corn stubble
feeding on yellow sorrel that was going to seed, and a chipping spar-
row and a field sparrow collected June 16 and 17, 1898, had eaten seeds
of the same weed.
Summer.—During the second week in July, 1898, a song sparrow
was often seen following lines of knotweed in the road along the bluff,
and a telescope showed that it was plucking off the newly ripened seeds.
At the same time another song sparrow, killed on the edge of a timothy
field, and two grasshopper sparrows from the center of the same field,
had eaten seeds of rib-grass, which at the time was a bad weed in the
timothy. During August the seed-eating of sparrows is sufficiently
noticeable to attract the attention of even a casual observer, for
by this time great stores of weed seed have ripened and the young
sparrows, which have been exclusively insectivorous, are ready to
take vegetable food. The following notes merely give a few specific
cases that might have been multiplied many times every day. A song
sparrow was observed (August 28, 1898) picking out soft immature
seeds from a spike of green fox-tail grass, a plant that, with its con-
gener pigeon-grass, furnishes seed-eating birds with favorite food.
On the same date a score of chipping sparrows were noted amid crab-
grass, which was spreading so rapidly through a market garden in
a pear orchard, on the Bryan place that it was likely to impair the
product. They hopped up to the fruiting stalks, which were then in
the milk, and beginning at the tip of one of the several spikes that
radiated from a common center like the spokes of a wheel and, grad-
ually moving their beaks along to the base, they chewed off the seeds
of spike after spike in regular succession. Usually they did not
remove their beaks until they reached the base, though some individ-
uals, especially birds of the year, would munch a few seeds in the
middle of a spike and then take a fresh one. Fourteen birds were col-
PLATE XIII.
Bull. 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
FouR COMMON SEED-DESTROYING SPARROWS.
1, Junco: 2, white-throated sparrow; 3, fox sparrow; 4, tree sparrow.
Bull, 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. PLATE XIV.
Fia. 1.—GIANT RAGWEED IN GARDEN.
Fia. 2.—BROOM-SEDGE APPROPRIATING LAND.
WEED SEED. 73
lected from this orchard and 10 from other parts of the farm. Crab-
grass seeds were found to haye formed 54 percent of their food, one
stomach containing 150 seeds. Most of the remaining: 46 percent
consisted of such weeds as green fox-tail grass, yellow sorrel, spotted
spurge, and purslane, with a very small quantity of ragweed. Other
sparrows were found feeding on crab-grass and the foregoing weeds
during the last week of August and the first part of September, 1898.
It is important to remember at this point that each of the sparrows
that live on the farm in summer, namely, the song, chipping, field, and
grasshopper sparrows, has its own peculiar habitat, and to note that
the consequent diversity of feeding ranges makes their work more or
less complementary, hence more valuable.
Autumn to late spring.—From autumn to late spring evidence of the
seed-eating habits of sparrows is so plain that he who runs may read.
The influx of northern migrants has by this time increased the sparrow
population several-fold, and as the leaves have fallen and the crops have
been cut, the lively flocks diving here and there among the brown weeds
to feed are familiar adjuncts of every roadside, fence row, and field.
Sparrows were collected only during November, 1899, February, 1900,
and April, 1899. Inall, 76 were taken, which comprised 25 song spar-
rows, 23 white-throats, 12 field sparrows, 11 juncos, 3 chipping sparrows,
a grasshopper sparrow, and a savanna sparrow. Seventy percent of
their food was weed seed, and the proportion would have been much
larger if the birds collected in April could have been taken in March,
for they had eaten of the abundant April insects almost to the exclu-
sion of seeds.
Field observations.—The mere examination of stomachs does not give
an adequate notion of the extent and the methods of weed-seed eating.
It was not feasible to collect stomachs enough to show the character-
istics of all the birds of the farm. A few minutes’ field observation,
however, would often tell what a large flock was doing in cases where
it would have been impossible to collect more than a few individuals.
Several notes are cited below to illustrate the sparrow’s work, which
begins, as has already been said, before the seeds are ripe, and con-
tinues throughout fall and winter and even far into spring.
In a rank weedy growth of crab-grass and green fox-tail grass in
the truck plot of lot 3 a flock of 20 juncos was watched for half an
hour, November 15, 1899, as they breakfasted on seeds. At this time
most of the seeds had fallen and the birds picked them up under the
plants instead of taking them from the stalks as the chipping sparrows
had done in August. On the following day the same flock, with about
an equal number of white-throated sparrows and song sparrows, flew
to the wheat stubble of lot 38, beside the negro cabin, and busily
gathered fallen seeds of ragweed which had made a rank growth there.
4 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
This weed is troublesome at Marshall Hall; it chokes the crops on
truck lands, gains a foothold in pastures, making milk bitter and
unsalable, and is so pestiferous in hayfields that it has to be removed
by agleaner. Fortunately, however, it is palatable to seed-eating
birds, and it probably furnishes them a larger proportion of their food
than any other plant on the farm, a fact which doubtless prevents
much greater trouble and loss. Another harmful weed is broom-
sedge. It is ruinous to mowing and pasture, and spreads so readily
that if undisturbed it would in time take possession of all the fields
(Pl. XIV, fig. 2). Juncos, field sparrows, tree sparrows, and probably
Fig. 28—Field sparrow.
other species check it to some extent. As has been said before, field
sparrows and tree sparrows are usually to be found associated with it.
In the higher part of the hog lot a flock of field sparrows (fig. 28) dur-
ing the middle of November, 1899 and 1900, spent most of their time
swaying on broom-sedge stalks, from which they were busily extract-
ing seeds. Sometimes a bird alighting on a plant would bend it to
the ground and hold it down with its feet while picking out the seeds;
seldom would one feed from the ground in any other manner. At the
same time a flock of about 30 field and tree sparrows along Persimmon
Branch behind the truck plot of lot 3 were also feeding on broom-sedge.
WEED SEED. 75
Au intéresting illustration of tree sparrows’ habits was noticed on
the Hungerford farm during a heavy snowstorm in the third week of
February, 1900. Here and there, where the whiteness of the field was
pierced by phalanxes of dry broom-sedge, a flock of a dozen or more
tree sparrows found good cheer in spite of the driving flakes. From
one brown patch to another they flew, clinging to the plants while they
plucked out the seeds, seldom leaving a stalk unexplored. Frequently
two would feed from a single stalk, while a third, made thrifty by the
wintry dearth, hopped in the snow below searching for scattered seeds.
The snow whirled in clouds across the field, but these little creatures,
inured to northern tempests, worked on with cheerful, hardy indus-
try. Several days later a flock of more than 200 sparrows, chiefly
juncos and tree sparrows,
with some song sparrows
and white-throats, were ob-
served feeding on a piece
of truck land between two
bushy brooks where weeds
grew rank, in places over-
topping a man’s head. The
snow beneath was every-
where delicately marked
with interlacing tracks,
which showed how thorough
had been the search for
food. One space 50 yards
square had hardly a square
yard that was free from the
prints of tiny feet. The
main harvest of ragweed
seeds lay buried under the
snow, but remnants still
clung to the stalks, and lamb’s-quarters and amaranth were well laden.
Under all these plants thickly scattered chaff and seed coats bore wit-
ness to the birds’ work.
Fig, 29.—Goldfinch.
WEED DESTRUCTION BY OTHER BIRDS.
Goldfinch—Goldfinches (fig. 29) would be as valuable as sparrows if
they wereas numerous. Like sparrows, they destroy weeds throughout
the year. In spring their first fresh supply comes from the dandelion.
On May 18, 1899, three males and two females hopped about among
the dandelion globes in the Bryan front yard, every now and then
perching crosswise on the stalks and devouring the seeds. In June
goldfinches often visited the field daisy (Zrigeron ramosus), and in
July the purple aster (Vernonia) and the wild carrot (Daucus carota).
In these cases they appeared to be picking out immature seeds, and
76 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM. F
one bird that was shot contained a soft mass of such food. The habit
of feeding on thistles, which has given the species its common name
of ‘thistle bird,’ was well exemplified one day in August, 1898. A
thistle on which a goldfinch had been feeding was examined and on its
leaves and the ground beneath 67 seeds were counted. They appeared
perfect, but close inspection showed a slit through which the meaty
kernel had been deftly removed. On the 30th and 31st of August,
1898, the goldfinch was seen eating seeds of the sow thistle and of wild
lettuce. September 7, 1896, six birds were banqueting on seeds of
beggar-ticks which had appropriated several square rods in an outfield
and threatened to give trouble in subsequent seasons. Four young-
sters, so recently fledged that they allowed me to approach within 10
feet of them, gave an excellent opportunity (September 21, 1896) to
observe how goldfinches feed on ragweed. Often they would all
alight on the same plant at once, then they would wrench off the seeds,
crack them, extract the meat, and drop the shell, their actions resem-
bling those of a canary at its seed cup. In one instance three alighted
ona very small plant, which under their weight bent to the ground.
Nothing daunted, they clung to the sprays, heads downward, until
they touched the earth, then, shifting their position so as to hold the
stems under their feet, went on with their meal.
About the middle of November, 1900, a flock of 300 goldfinches were
noted perching in Juxuriant ragweed on truck land of the Hungerford
farm, industriously stripping off seeds. The work of such an army
must have caused decided limitation of the next year’sgrowth. During
the third week of February, 1900, a flock of about 50 were seen in a tangle
of trumpet creeper on the edge of the bluff (Pl. VI, fig. 1). They were
clinging to the long, partly opened pods, extracting seeds, and the refuse
of their meal madea continual flurry of floating empty seed wings. Dur-
ing four minutes six birds that were somewhat isolated dropped 57 of
these seed wings. Feeding on the trumpet creeper proved to be
habitual with the goldfinch and must have prevented many seeds from
spreading inland over lot 3 before the prevailing river winds. The
plant is a mischievous weed at Marshall Hall. In 1898 it choked out
the oats in one part of a patch and twined around nearly half the corn-
stalks in a field near the river. It was bad in truck plots during 1899
and 1900, and always makes the breaking up of old pastures a serious
undertaking for man and horse. It may be mentioned in passing that
the downy woodpecker has also been seen picking out these winged
seeds, as well as taking mullein and ragweed seeds from the stalk.
Purple Finch.—The purple finch, though it habitually feeds in trees,
often destroys seeds of noxious plants. On the 15th and 16th of
November, 1900, a thicket of giant ragweed that had made a 10-foot
growth in the Bryan kitchen garden (Pl. XIV, fig. 1) was gay with a
flock of 30 finches that hung on the sprays while they stripped off the
WEED SEED. U7
seeds as the goldfinches had. One bird that was watched with a glass
ate 15 seeds-in three minutes.
Chickadee.—The Carolina chickadee, though largely ee ee
was also frequently seen hanging head downwards in ragweed plants
wrenching off seeds.
Cardinal.—The cardinal, when observed on arable land, was a deni-
zen of hedgerows. It was not abundant like finches and sparrows,
but was not uncommon in loose flocks of ten or a dozen. In company
with sparrows it often foraged a little way out from cover for the
larger weed seeds, and was seen picking up seeds of both small and
giant ragweed. It has a peculiar habit, shared by the fox sparrow,
and seen sometimes in the song sparrow and the white-throat, of
cracking and eating the seeds of berries and other fleshy fruits; a
habit probably useful, especially when seeds of the blackberry and
other fruiting plants that invade cultivated land are selected.
Blackbirds.—The large flocks of crow blackbirds on the farm, often
numbering from 2,000 to 3,000, have been previously referred to. If
they were not notorious grain thieves they would be famous weed
destroyers. Evénas it is they were sometimes seen eating weed seeds,
and in spring, when grain is lacking, they probably do considerable
good. During fall and spring of the years 1899, 1900, and 1901,
flocks of from 50 to 100 cowbirds, and often several hundred red-
winged blackbirds, and occasionally as many as a thousand rusty
blackbirds, assembled on the farm. They fed on ragweed of wheat
stubble and among weeds of truck areas, and doubtless destroyed an
incalculable number of seeds. The cowbird and the red-winged black-
bird, according to Professor Beal, feed on weed seed to the extent of
more than half their annual food and during. most of the colder half
of the year at least four-fifths.
Meadowlark.—The meadowlark, though it gets two-thirds of its
living from insects, has in the colder months a voracious appetite for
seeds. On the Hungerford farm in November, 1899 and 1900, were
two flocks of meadowlarks, and on the Bryan farm a single flock some-
what scattered, numbering altogether about 50 individuals. They
usually divided their time among the weeds of cornfields both old and
new, the ragweed of wheat stubble, and the miscellaneous weeds of
truck land. On one occasion birds were seen eating seeds of pigeon-
grass in the last situation, and on another picking up seeds of ragweed.
Mourning Dove.— After the breeding season there were three flocks
of dovesand three of bobwhites distributed likethe meadowlarks. Each
flock of doves contained between 20 and 30 individuals. One, on the
Bryan place, fed in weedy old cornfields, and, after the wheat had been
harvested, amid the ragweed of wheat stubble, which by August was
18 inches high. A bird killed from this flock had eaten, in addition
78 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
to other food, seeds of yellow sorrel, spotted spurge, crab-grass, and
pigeon-grass. Another, on the upper part of the Hungerford place,
foraged in the ragweed of wheat and oat stubble, and in a heavy crop
of crab-grass and pigeon-grass in a cornfield that was being harvested.
The stomach of one of these birds, taken November 17, 1899, contained
150 ragweed seeds, and another 300 crab-grass seeds. The third, on
the lower part of this farm, were not seen in stubble-fields, but fre-
quented forests of weeds in certain orchards and truck plots, and
apparently made their whole fare on the seeds. During the heavy
snow of February, 1900, doves fed in a wind-swept pasture, some-
times appearing to pick up weed seeds, and sometimes assembling in
two pits 10 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep, where abundantly fruited
plants of pokeberry were growing. At five different times the flock,
numbering more than 20, was flushed from the pits. Footprints and
red stains on the snow showed that they were eating berries and prob-
ably their seeds, some of which were found on the ground after the
snow had melted. Fruit-eating birds, which take the berries of this
plant, void the seeds uninjured and thus disseminate them, but doves
grind them to atoms by the powerful action of their gizzards.
Bobwhite—One covey of the bobwhites, which has already been
described as feeding largely on wheat in its season, lived on the upper
part of the Hungerford place; another, still larger, which to judge
from its droppings took practically no grain, lived on the lower part;
and a third lived on the Bryan farm. One bird from the first covey,
7 from the second, and 5 from the third were shot and examined.
These 13 had taken weed seed to the extent of 63 percent of their food.
Thirty-eight percent was ragweed, 2 percent tick-trefoil, partridge pea,
and locust seeds, and 23 percent seeds of miscellaneous weeds, such
as pigweed, sheep sorrel, Pennsylvania persicaria, climbing false
buckwheat, trumpet creeper, paspalum, jewel-weed, and pigeon-grass.
Though the stomachs and crops were not well filled, the birds had eaten
5,582 weed seeds. One crop contained 400 pigweed seeds, another
500 seeds of ragweed. The latter seeds, which are cracked open by
most birds, are swallowed whole by bobwhites and doves, in spite of
the spiny processes which beset them. One bobwhite, in addition to
other food, had consumed 550 seeds of sheep sorrel; another 640 seeds
of pigeon-grass; and several 50 to 100 seeds of jewel-weed.
Extent of weed-seed destruction.—Inspection of an acre of truck land
between two converging bushy brooks on the Hungerford farm
(November 16, 1899), gave a very satisfactory idea of the autumn
work of weed-destroying birds. Crab-grass and pigeon-grass formed
a low undergrowth, while lamb’s-quarters, pigweed, and giant rag-
weed from 6 to 10 feet high rose in a thick weed forest. A flock of
15 quail foraged in the center of the area, 25 doves were scattered over
the upper end, and fully 200 native sparrows scurried about at the
SPECIES. 79
lower end, while a band of 300 goldfinches clung to the ragweed stalks
plucking off seeds. If we make the fair assumption that the birds
remained on this acre of plenty long enough to obtain a full meal, we
can reckon approximately the destruction wrought. At a moderate
estimate 20 seeds apiece may be allowed for the goldfinches, 100 for the
sparrows, providing that they were from crab-grass or pigeon-grass,
and 500 for the doves and bobwhites, or a total of 46,000 seeds destroyed
at a single breakfast.
In the last week of April an attempt was made to ascertain what
proportion of the weed seeds ripening on the farm had been consumed
during the previous half year. In the wheat field of lot 4, where at
the beginning of October there had been scores of seeds on every rag-
weed plant, it was difficult to find in a fifteen-minute search half a
dozen remaining. In the truck plot of lot 3, which had borne a thick
growth of pigeon-grass, examination of an area where there had been
hundreds of seeds the autumn before would sometimes fail to disclose
ofie, and in a mat of crab-grass in the same field frequently not one
was left out of a thousand present in October.
VII.—SPECIES.
Having discussed under the heads of insects, flesh, fruit, grain, and
weed seed the elements that entered into the food of the birds at
Marshall Hall, we may now enumerate the birds themselves and indi-
cate as far as possible the economic status of each with reference to
this particular farm.?
WATER BIRDS.
The data concerning water birds are so limited as almost to preclude
anything more than a list of species.
GREBES.
The horned grebe (Colymbus auritus) has been noted on the river
at Marshall Hall in December on two occasions. f
sap must have been an exhausting drain, but it was not the sole cause
of death. Beetles of the flat-headed apple borer, attracted by the
90 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
exuding sap, had oviposited in the holes, and the next generation,
having thus gained an entrance, had finished the deadly work beyun
by the sapsuckers. Holes made by birds are sometimes closed by
burl-like knobs of wood, but if they remain open the death of the
tree from borers is very likely to result. In the case of the trees
killed at Marshall Hall, galleries made by borers had honeycombed
the wood beneath the section of bark riddled by the sapsuckers.
Only 2 stomachs of sapsuckers were collected. They were taken
during the middle of November, 1899 and 1900, and contained several
dung-beetles (Aphodius) and the fruit of woodbine and red cedar.
The red-headed woodpecker is not common at Marshall Hall, though
it was seen in small numbers every fall. One specimen taken Novem-
Fig. 32.—Flicker.
ber 29, 1900, among the swamp oaks south of lots 4 and 5, had eaten gall
insects (Cynipide) and many bits of the woody tissue of the gall.
This woodpecker makes about half its food on vegetable matter,
largely mast with some berries, and selects for its insect food chiefly
beetles, ants, and grasshoppers. It is, on the whole, useful.
The flicker (fig. 32), though nesting on the farm, was common only
during migration, when it was seen in flocks of from 6 to 12. A
stomach collected in the middle of November, 1899, contained 10
ground-beetles (including Anisodactylus, Harpalus pennsylvanicus, and
Pterostichus sayi), 5 ants, 1 sow bug, 1 black cricket and skin, and
20 seeds of woodbine berries. The flicker is somewhat more insectiy-
SPECIES. 91
orous than the redhead. Its vegetable food usually consists of a little
mast and a good deal of wild fruit. It is less of a woodpecker than
any other species of the family, for it is much less arboreal and spends
alarge part of the time on the ground securing ants with its long
sticky tongue. As many as 5,000 ants have been taken from one
stomach. So important is this article of diet that it forms three-
fourths of the insect food of the species.
WHIP-POOR-WILLS, NIGHT-HAWKES, SWIFTS, AND HUMMING-
BIRDS.
Whip-poor-wills (Antrostomus vociferus) and night-hawks (Chor-
deiles virginianus), two exclusively insectivorous species, are highly
useful. The former was frequently heard, and the latter was fre-
quently seen in late summer as it soared over the farm after ants.
The chimney swift (Chetura pelagica) is, as might be expected,
wholly insectivorous. Three birds collected July 18, 1898, had caught
the following insects on the wing: One small bee (Andrenide), 3 bugs
(Heteroptera), and 34 weevils (Sttones hispidulus).
The ruby-throated hummingbird (Zrochilus colubris) feeds on insects
and the nectar of flowers. During the last of May it visited the flowers
of the persimmon, in June the honeysuckle, and later tobacco and
the trumpet creeper. A bird that was shot fresh from a trumpet flower
had eaten 1 little green bee (Andrenide) and 1 minute spider.
FLYCATCHERS.
The following species of flycatchers have been noted at Marshal]
Hall:
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (Muscivora forficata). Noted by Mr. O. N. Bryan.
Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus), 16.
Great crested flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus), 4.
Pheebe (Sayornis phebe), 3.
Wood pewee (Contopus virens), 11.
Acadian flycatcher (Empidonax virescens) , 1.
Sixteen kingbirds were collected from May 28 to July 30. Insects
formed 71 percent and fruit 29 percent of their food. The fruit con-
sisted of cherries, sassafras, wild and cultivated mulberries, elder, and
blackberries. The proportion of insect food was not so large as is
typical for the species, a circumstance resulting probably from the
readiness with which fruit could be obtained. Beetles constituted 37
percent of the food, grasshoppers and crickets 23 percent, ants and
bees 4 percent, parasitic wasps 2 percent, miscellaneous insects, includ-
ing caterpillars and bugs, 3 percent, and spiders 2 percent. Among
the miscellaneous insects were a stink bug (Hymenarcys nervosa), an
assassin bug (Sznea diadema), and a whole cabbage butterfly (Prercs
rape). The bees included small wild species (Andrenide) and drones
92 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
of honey bees. The parasitic wasps included forms of the families
Ichneumonide and Scoliide. Of the beetles, which were by all means
the most interesting element of the insect food, ground-beetles (includ-
ing Anisodactylus and Cratacanthus dubius) furnished 2 percent, tiger-
beetles, soldier-beetles (Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus), and dung-
beetles (Atzenius and Aphodius) 3 percent, and injurious beetles of the
following. species 30 percent:
Rose-chafer (Macrodactylus subspinosus). Locust leaf-mining beetle (Odontota dor- ......
Southern June-beetle (Allorhina nitida). salis) .
Shining leaf-chafer (Anomala). Blister-beetle (EHpicautu cinerea).
Sad flower-beetle( Zuphoria melancholica). Asparagus-beetle ( Crioceris asparagi).
Long- -horned beetles (including Leptura).
Aspar agus-beetles and blister-beetles are scarcely ever eaten by
other birds and rose-chafers seldom; hence the service rendered by the -
kingbird in destroying these insects and others of an injurious charac-
ter in large numbers makes it one of the most valuable allies of the
farmer. .
Of the remaining flycatchers collected, the wood pewee and the
Acadian flycatcher are purely insectivorous, and the phcebe and the
great crested flycatcher, though subsisting chiefly on insects, quite
often, especially in late summer, vary their fare with fruit.
One Acadian flycatcher was collected. It had eaten a spider, a
parasitic wasp, a long-horned beetle, a leaf-beetle (Crepidodera), and
a banded-winged horsefly (Chrysops).
Of 11 wood pewees all had taken beetles, including click-beetles, long-
horned beetles (Leptura rubrica), dung-beetles (Onthophagus pennsyl-
vanicus), soldier-beetles (Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus), locust leaf-
mining beetles (Odontota dorsalis) and a related leaf-beetle (Hemonia
nigricornis), and weevils of the species Phytonomus punctatus and
Sphenophorus zex. Seven had destroyed parasitic wasps, including
Braconidee, Evaniide, Ichneumonide (Afesostenus and others), and
Scoliide (Ziphia tnornata); 4 had eaten flies (Chironomus, Sapro-
myza vulgaris, Lucilia cesar, and other muscid flies); 1 had taken a
moth; and 3 had eaten, respectively, a caddis-fly, a May-beetle, and a
spider. Although the wood pewee destroys large numbers of injuri-
ous insects, especially beetles, it feeds so eagerly on the useful para-
sitic wasps that its scarcity at Marshall Hall was perhaps fortunate
for the owners of the farms.
Three pheebe (fig. 33) stomachs were collected. Their contents were
chiefly beetles of the following kinds:
Anisodactylus. Lachnosterna.
Cicindela. Odontota dorsalis.
Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus, Orsodachna. atra.
Canthon. Collops quadrimaculatus.
Aphodius inquinatus. Lema trilineata.
Onthophagus pennsylvanicus.
SPECIES. 93
In smaller numbers the birds had eaten flying ants, parasitic wasps,
and other wasps, bugs, caddis-flies, and spiders. One had tasted
blackberries.
Four great crested flycatchers were collected in May. Their stomachs
contained May-tlies, ants (Cum ponotus pennsylvandicus and other forms),
parasitic wasps (Ichneumonidae, Scoliide (Z/phia) and Evaniide), bugs
(Euschistus and Nezura hilar’s), and beetles (Curculionide, Elateride,
Cicindela sexaguttata, Dicercau, and Odontota dorsalis). Despite their
Fig. 338.—Pheebe.
taste for parasitic wasps both pheebe and great crested flycatcher are in
the main useful on account of the large number of insect pests they
destroy.
HORNED LARKS.
When the horned lark (Otocoris alpestris) occurred at, Marshall
Hall, as it did occasionally in severe winter weather, it subsisted almost
entirely on seeds, largely weed seeds, often with waste grain. A bird
collected during the severe blizzard of February, 1900, was feeding in
a wind-swept cowyard, where it secured a bit of a kernel of corn, 4
seeds of lamb’s-quarters, 8 of crab-grass, 10 of bastard pennyroyal,
and 12 of ragweed.
BLUE JAYS AND CROWS.
Six blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata, fig. 34) were collected in May
and November. All except one had taken insects. Beetles were the
most important elementand comprised Chlenius estivus, Lachnosterna,
~”
94 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
Euphoria fulgida, Onthophagus, Elateride, and Curculionide. The
less important element was composed of parasitic wasps, May-flies,
and grasshoppers (Locustide). One bird had eaten a snail and one a
spider. One had taken mulberries and all had eaten acorns. Mast
formed half the total volume of food. None of these six specimens had
eaten grain, which usually enters into the blue jay’s food to some
extent, and in certain localities in New Hampshire that came under
direct observation furnished a significant part of it. The blue jay
takes about three times as much vegetable as animal food. It appears
to do no harm at Marshal] Hall and consumes a fair quantity of injuri-
ous beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars.
The common crow (Corvus americanus) was much more numerous on
the farm than the fish crow (Corvus ossifragus). Four stomachs of the
former species were collected. In the case of this bird, which, as has
been shown, attacks poultry and grain (see pp. 50 and 65), protection
Fic, 34.—Blue jay.
is not desirable at Marshall Hall. Elsewhere the species may do as
much good as harm, perhaps even more, but here local conditions
make encouragement of its presence incompatible with prudent
farming.
MEADOWLARKES, BOBOLINES, AND COWBIRDS.
The meadowlark (Sturnella magna) is one of the class of highly use-
ful birds. It is commonly supposed to be largely vegetarian, but it
really takes about three times as much animal matter as vegetable.
One-third of this major part is usually composed of grasshoppers,
though these insects were not abundant enough at Marshall Hall to
enter largely into the food of the 7 meadowlarks collected. Injurious
beetles and caterpillars, however, were taken in customary quantities.
The meadowlark, which is commonly regarded as a game bird at
SPECIES. 95
Marshall Hall, is frequently shot, and its valuable work as a destroyer
of weed seed and insects is thus often cut off.
When the bobolink (Dolichonya oryzivorus, fig. 35) tarries on the
farm in its southward migration it lives wholly on the wild rice of the
calamus swamp, but on its return journey in May it eats injurious
insects and weed seed of the wheat and clover fields. Six stomachs
were collected in May.
The cowbird (Molothrus ater), as has been shown by Prof. F. E. L.
Beal,? takes three times the volume of seeds that it takes of insects.
Both of the 2 stomachs examined contained grasshoppers (Xiphidium
and JJelanoplus) and 1 of them leaf-hoppers, two elements character-
Fic. 35.—Bobolink.
-istic of the insect food of the species. The bird does little damage
to grain fields, and renders much service with other birds in reducing
the weed-seed harvest of the farm.
BLACKBIRDS AND ORIOLES.
The red-winged blackbird (Agelatus pheniceus, fig. 36), however
destructive to grain it may be elsewhere, does no damage in the grain-
fields at Marshall Hall. Its insect food, which is to its vegetable food
as one to three, is composed largely of weevils, caterpillars, and grass-
«Bobolink, Blackbirds, and Grackles. Bull. No. 13, Biological Survey, Dept. of
Agriculture, p. 29, 1900.
96 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
hoppers. Its good work among weeds has been previously described
(see p. 77). Eight stomachs were examined, but with little significance
of result, for the temporary abundance of May-flies had diverted the
birds from insect pests.
One stomach of the rusty blackbird (Scolecophagus carolinus) was
collected April 14, 1899. It contained beetles (//arpalus and Sitones),
1 caterpillar, 1 small bee, and some waste corn. The character and
extent of weed-seed destruction by rusty blackbirds on the farms at
Marshall Hall has been shown on p. 77.
Crow blackbirds (Quzscalus quiscula) have been proved by examina-
tion of thousands of stomachs to take fully twice as much vegetable as
animal food, the vegetable food being chiefly grain and fruit. And at
Marshall Hall, after the young were established in life and tho hosts of
Northern birds, includ-
ing the subspecies Qués-
calus quiscala xeneus, had
arrived, systematic pil-
lage of grain fields took
place (see p. 67), which
could be checked only by
the shotgun. Twenty-
five stomachs of the spe-
cies were examined.
The orchard oriole
(Lcterus spurius) is a sum-
mer resident at Marshall
Hall and may usually be
found nesting during the
breeding season to the
extent of a dozen pairs, though the present summer (1902) formed
an exception to this rule, the usual number being reduced to 2 or 3.
The food-of this species, as shown in 11 stomachs collected during
May and June, was composed of 91 percent animal matter and 9 per-
cent vegetable matter. The latter part was nearly all mulberries;
the former was distributed as follows: Fly larve, 1 percent; parasitic
wasps, 2 percent; ants, 4 percent; bugs, 5 percent; caterpillars, 12
percent; grasshoppers, including a few crickets, 13 percent; beetles,
14 percent; May-flies, 27 percent; spiders, 13 percent. Thus bene-
ficial insects—parasitic wasps—formed only 2 percent of the food, and
injurious species—caterpillars, grasshoppers, and harmful beetles—
amounted to 38 percent.
The Baltimore oriole (/cterus galbula) is also a highly insectivorous,
useful species, but occurs at Marshall Hall only during migration.
One bird was collected May 29, 1896. It had eaten mulberries, 2
small wasps, 2 fall webworms, 1 click-beetle, and 15 locust leaf-mining
beetles.
Bull. 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. PLATE XVII.
Fic. 1.—BLUEBIRD AT EDGE OF NEST WITH GRASSHOPPER
IN MOUTH.
From photograph by Rey. P. B. Peabody.
Boetnn 1
Fig. 2.-FORMER NESTING SITE OF BLUEBIRDS ON LAWN AT BRYAN Farm.
The hole used by the birds may be seen about halfway to the top of the tree against which
the gun is leaning. Asin Plate [ Mount Vernon is to be seen in the distance.
SPECIES. 97
FINCHES AND SPARROWS.
One purple finch (Carpodacus purpureus) was collected (February
20,1900) from a flock feeding on cedar berries. Examination revealed,
therefore, only remains of this fruit. ;
Specimens of the red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra minor) and the
white-winged crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) were collected at Marshall
Hall by Mr. O. N. Bryan, who presented them to the U. S. National
Museum.
Eleven goldfinches (Astragalinus trist’s) were collected. Insects
(caterpillars) had been eaten by only one, practically all the food con-
sisting of seeds, principally weed seeds. The goldfinch is probably
the most useful seed-eater on the farm.
Several pine siskins (Spinus pinus) were seen December 1, 1901,
in company with goldfinches.
The following native sparrows were noted:
Vesper sparrow (Poucetes gramineus).
Savanna sparrow (Ammodramus sandwichensis savanna), 1.
Grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum passerinus), 10.
Henslow sparrow (Ammodramus henslowi), 1.
White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), 17.
Tree sparrow (Spizella monticola), 9.
Chipping sparrow (Spizella socialis), 61.
Field sparrow (Spizella pusilla), 31.
unco (Junco hyemalis), 11.
Song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), 36.
Lincoln sparrow (JMMelospiza lincolni).
Fox sparrow (Passerella iliaca).
From May to September, inclusive, half the food of field, song,
chipping, and grasshopper sparrows consists of insects. The grass-
hopper sparrow is the most insectivorous of the four, but a descrip-
tion of the insect food taken by it at Marshall Hall will serve,
because of similarity, to indicate that of the other three. The main
part was composed of beetles, caterpillars, and grasshoppers. The
beetles included Svtones hispidulus, Drasterius, Systena elonguta,
Systena blanda, Colaspis brunnea, Anisodactylus, and Atenius.
The caterpillars belonged chiefly to the family Noctuide, including
many cutworms and army worms. Caterpillars of the family Geome-
tridee were occasionally eaten. The grasshoppers were of the genera
Xiphidium, Scudderia, Melanoplus, Hipprscus, and Dissosteira. The
following bugs also had been eaten: Cortzus, Trichopepla semivittata,
Hymenarcys nervosa, and Alydus pilosulus. Spiders were frequently
taken.
The chipping and field sparrows sometimes destroy small numbers
of useful parasitic wasps, and the song sparrow now and then eats the
less beneficial smaller ground-beetles. The insectivorous habits of all
7222—No. 17—02——7
98 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
these native species are, on the whole, however, extremely valuable to
man. The consumption of weed seeds, the chief service of these
birds as well as of those that visit the farm only in the colder season,
has already been emphasized (see p. 72). For a detailed account of
the food habits of sparrows the reader is referred to ‘The Relation
of Sparrows to Agriculture.’“ As there shown, and as set forth in
the first part of this bulletin (see p. 17), the English sparrow differs
radically in habits from the native sparrows and is a pest that should
be exterminated.
One towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) was. taken September 9,
1896. Its stomach was found to contain a locust leaf-mining beetle, a
weevil, a ground-beetle, a bug, a cricket, 6 ants, and remains of
broken seeds.
Ten cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) were collected from February
to November, inclusive, with the omission of March. Twenty-two
percent of their food consisted of animal matter (insects and spiders)
and 78 percent of vegetable matter (half fruit and half seeds). Of the
minor proportion, bugs formed 1 percent; spiders, May-flies, and
grasshoppers, each 2 percent, and beetles 15 percent. The beetles
were as follows: Agrilus egenus, Dicerca obscura, Macrodactylus sub-
spinosus, Donacia, Odontota dorsalis, Lyperplatys aspersus, Anisodac-
tylus agricola. On November 29, 1901, two cardinals were noted
eating seeds of the tulip tree.
One stomach of the indigo bird (Cyanospiza cyanea) was examined.
It held 1 beetle (Agri/us egenus) and a little vegetable débris.
TANAGERS.
At Marshall Hall tanagers were never detected pilfering cultivated
fruit, as they have often been known to do elsewhere.
One summer tanager (Piranga rubra), collected August 5, 1898, had
eaten wild blackberries, a bee (Agapostemon), and a scoliid wasp.
Three scarlet tanagers (Piranga erythromelas), taken in May and
August, had fed exclusively on insects, which comprised a bee (Halée-
tus), parasitic wasps, white ants, a soldier bug (Wezara hilaris),
click-beetles, darkling-beetles (Zfelops micans), anid the sad flower-
beetle (Luphoria melancholica).
SWALLOWS.
The following swallows were noted:
Purple martin (Progne subis), 2.
Barn swallow (Hirundo erythrogastra), 10.
White-bellied swallow ( Tachycineta bicolor), 5.
Bank swallow (Riparia riparia), 6.
Rough-winged swallow (Stelgidopteryx serripennis), 7.
«The Relation of Sparrows to Agriculture. Bull. No. 15, Biological Survey, Dept.
of Agriculture, Washington, 1901.
SPECIES. 99
Thirty swallows, collected between the middle of May and the middle
of August, had eaten nothing but insects. Parasitic wasps and bees
formed 2 percent of their food (less than usual with aerial feeders),
bugs 3 percent, May-flies 8 percent, beetles 13 percent, white ants 21
percent, ants 83 percent, and miscellaneous insects, principally flies
with a few bugs, 20 percent. The forms selected were bees of the
family Andrenidw, and parasitic wasps of the families Scoliide, Ich-
neumonide, and Chalcidide. The beetle food was interesting, for
besides click-beetles, dung-beetles (Aphodius inquinatus, Lister, Ate-
nius, and Onthophagus pennsylvanicus), weevils of several species,
and metallic woodborers (Agrilus), it included the engraver beetles
(among them Tomicus cacographus), which are destroyed by only
few other birds. The food of swallows is peculiar in its lack of
caterpillars and grasshoppers, which are so important to the subsist-
ence of other birds. As with flycatchers, the number of flies taken
is generally overestimated. In the stomachs examined were found
snipe-flies (Leptide), golden-green flesh-flies (Zuezliu cesar), and other
muscide, with an occasional banded-winged horse-fly (Chrysops).
CEDAR BIRDS.
The cedar bird (Ampelis cedrorum, fig. 37) is the most. frugivorous
of the Marshall Hall birds. More than four-fifths of its food was
Fic. 37,—Cedar bird.
fruit, the remainder insects. Though often troublesome elsewhere,
it does no harm here, and accomplishes some good through its slightly
insectivorous habit. Five stomachs were collected in May. One con-
tained cherries, one mulberries, and a third smilax berries. Insects
(locust leaf-mining beetles and May-flies) were found in three.
100 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM.
SHRIKES.
The impaling of grasshoppers and mice by the loggerhead shrike
(Lanius ludovicianus) near the storage barn has already been men-
tioned (see p. 54). The only other field observation was on Octo-
ber 28, 1901; when a shrike near the same place was seen to kill a gar-
ter snake (Zitaznia) 13 inches long. Owing to the small number of
sbrikes at Marshall Hall no specimens were taken, but in order to
investigate the feeding habits some experiments were carried on with
a captive bird given me by Mr. William Palmer. The habit the bird
has of impaling prey has been the subject of considerable speculation,
some writers maintaining that it gibbets its victims alive for the
pleasure of watching their death struggles, and others that it slaugh-
ters more game at a time than it can eat and hangs up the surplus to
provide against a time of want. This theory of prudent foresight
may explain why it kills more game than it can eat, but, as the experi-
ments showed, it does not touch the real reason why it impales its
prey.
On the day after the shrike in question was captured a dead mouse
was offered it. The shrike raised its wings, moved its tail up and down
petulantly after the manner of the phoebe, and then seized the mouse
and dragged it about for several minutes, trying to wedge it into first
one and then another corner of the cage. Failing in this effort, it tried
to impale the mouse on the blunt broken end of a branch that had been
placed in the cage for a perch, but the body fell to the floor. Then it
tried to hold the mouse with its feet and tear it to pieces, but its feet
were too weak. Ibid., vol. 19, p. 41.
LEGISLATION. 19
Carolina during the same season. The value of this bird, both to
the farmer and the sportsman, renders the question of its maintenance
and increase one of much importance. So assiduously is the bob-
white sought by sportsmen and market hunters that intelligent and
concerted efforts are needed even to maintain its present numbers.
LEGISLATION IN BEHALF OF BOBWHITE.
In addition to natural causes, reasons for the diminished numbers
of bobwhites are diversity in the open season, shooting out of sea-
son, excessive shooting in season, and unrestricted shooting and
trapping for market. Lack of uniformity in laws of adjoining
States, and in some cases of adjoining counties, renders their observ-
ance difficult and their enforcement often impossible. No other
game bird has been the subject of so much legislation, which, begin-
ning in New York in 1791, now extends to every State and Territory
where the bird is native or has been introduced. The length of sea-
son during which the bird should be protected by law is a matter of
paramount importance. It goes without saving that no shooting
should be permitted during the breeding season, which must be
understood to last until the young of the vear are strong of wing and
fully developed for the struggle for existence. Besides this the close
season ought to include months of rest, during which the birds can
fortify themselves for the physiological strain of the next period of
reproduction. As now established -the open season varies from
twenty-one days in Ohio to seven months in Mississippi. In North
Carolina, however, where nearly every county has its own law, the
bobwhite may be shot throughout the year in five counties. Virginia
has recently abolished county laws and established uniformity, an
example that other States, especially Southern States, would do well
to follow. It is gratifying to note that in 1903 the open seasons
were shortened by New York, Jllinois, Texas, and Virginia. In
eight States—Maine, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Mon-
tana, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah—the bobwhite is absolutely
protected for a term of years, extending to 1920 in Colorado. Two
conditions justify such prohibition of shooting. First, when ex-
cessive shooting or other causes have made recuperation necessary;
second, when birds just introduced into a new locality need time to
establish themselves. Wherever the bird can not hold its own with
an open season of three weeks absolute protection for a period of
years is demanded. The length of the open season must vary with
varying conditions, but in view of the general decrease of the birds
there would seem to be a growing need for shortening it. The sooner
Northern States limit their shooting to one month the better. Even
4 Recreation, vol, 16, p, 372,
20 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
Southern birds can not stand the present continuous fusillade of
from four to seven months, and the open season in the South shouid
be limited to two or, at most, three months.
The slaughter of the bobwhite by sportsmen who hunt for pleasure
is insignificant in comparison with that by professional market
hunters. At the present time (1904), in about 25 States, the law
takes cognizance of this fact by prohibiting the sale of birds killed
within the State or imported from other States, and the general
tendency altogether to prohibit the sale is growing each year. Every
State except Mississippi forbids the sending of certain game outside
the State—a restriction on the sportsman as well as the market
hunter, although the privilege of carrying home a limited amount
of game is often granted under a nonresident license. Fourteen
States have laws, also affecting both classes, limiting a day’s bag to
trom 5 to 50 birds. Many sportsmen and farmers would be glad if
the limit were set at 12. Laws discriminating against nonresidents
protect the game and benefit the landowner, provided visiting sports-
men are not barred altogether by unreasonable fees. Thirty-one
States and Territories require nonresident licenses. In addition to
State game laws there are certain Federal laws, the most important
of which is the Lacey Act, which provides, among other things,
through the Department of Agriculture, for the preservation, distri-
bution, introduction, and restoration of game birds, and also under-
takes to bring to justice persons who transport from one State to
another game killed in violation of local laws. The latter clause
proves effective in restricting such illegal shipments and in suppress-
ing professional dealers that kill out of season in one State and
attempt to sell in another where the season is still open. A law to
prevent keeping birds in cold storage from one season to another
would stop certain loopholes in the present laws and greatly aid in
preserving game. An effective system of State game officials where
it is lacking would aid in enforcing game laws. A number of States
depend solely on county officers; but experience has shown that with-
out a central State organization and special game wardens the law to
a great extent becomes a dead letter.
MEASURES FOR PRESERVATION AND PROPAGATION.
Stringent laws against trapping the bobwhite have been enacted,
but such legislation should permit legitimate trapping for purposes
of propagation. One of the most important problems before game
commissioners 1s the restocking of depleted covers. If, however, the
bobwhite can be reared successfully in captivity, all trapping may
be~prohibited. The sporting magazines (‘ Forest and Stream’ and
‘American Field’) mention cases of the bird’s laying in captivity
PRESERVATION AND PROPAGATION. 21
and raising its young; and in a letter to the writer, dated September
2, 1904, G. W. Jack, of Shreveport, La., says:
I now have a pair of quails (bobwhites) which were trapped last winter
and which I keep in a large wire coop. They have made a nest in some grass
and have laid about 12 or 15 eggs.
The eggs were laid very irregularly, not more than two or three a week, so
that by the time the nest was full the season was far advanced, which perhaps
accounts for the female not sitting. ‘The eggs were set under a hen and proved
fertile, but the young were eaten by the chicken as fast as they hatched. I
concluded that this irregularity or slowness in laying was the result of the lack
of insect and other egg-producing food, as the birds subsist almost wholly on
grain. Of late, however, they have learned to eat with much relish the yolk of
an egg hard boiled.
The failure of the female to sit was probably due to the unnatural
confinement in so small a space, a difficulty which could readily be
remedied if attempts to raise quail were made on a large scale.
Unquestionably, too, it would be necessary to feed the quail, at least
during the nesting period, to a considerable extent upon animal food.
An instructive account of quail breeding in confinement appears in
Forest and Stream for September 28, 1882 (p. 164). The female had
been hatched and reared by a bantam hen, and this circumstance has
an important bearing on experiments of this kind. It is altogether
probable that bobwhites hatched and reared in this way would lend
themselves to experiments in propagation far more readily than wild
birds trapped for the purpose.
The Department of Agriculture obtained three pairs of bobwhites
from Kansas, which after five months’ captivity are almost as
wild as when first caged and show no signs of mating. Experiments
in the domestication of bobwhite are well worth trying, however,
because of the demand from clubs and individuals for live birds to
restock their grounds. So great has become the demand in recent
years that it is estimated that 200,000 birds would be required
-annually to fill it. During the spring of 1903 the demand far
exceeded the supply, even at $5 a dozen, and sometimes at twice that
figure.
Success in increasing the numbers of bobwhite depends largely on
controlling its natural enemies, which include snakes, foxes, weasels,
minks, skunks, domestic cats, and certain hawks and owls. Several
species of snakes eat its eggs and young. Writing from Texas,
Major Bendire says: “ The many large rattlesnakes found here are
their worst enemies. One killed in May had swallowed five of these
birds at one meal; another had eaten a female, evidently caught on
her nest, and half a dozen of her eggs; a third had taken four bob-
whites and a scaled partridge.”* In Mecklenburg County, Va., the
«Life Hist. N. Am. Birds [1], p. 8, 1892.
22 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
king snake (Lampropeltis getula) has been known to eat a clutch of
eges. At Falls Church, Va., Harvey Riley captured a black snake
(Bascanion constrictor) which disgorged a newly hatched bobwhite.
Reference has been made already to the marked decrease in the
number of bobwhites on the 230-acre farm at Marshall Hall, from
fifty-odd birds in July to less than a dozen in December, though not
more than a dozen had been shot. This decrease was probably due,
at least in part, to gray foxes; for in August and September these
animals were numerous, and often came after the chickens within a
stone’s throw of the farmhouse. Other predaceous mammals and
birds of prey were not numerous, but foxes frequently were seen at
midday searching through pastures where there were broods of bob-
whites. It must be easy for a fox to exterminate a whole brood of
newly hatched bobwhites, and no difficult task’ to catch them even
when three-fourths grown. Minks and weasels, when numerous, are
probably even more destructive to young bobwhites than to domestic
poultry. The domestic cat that takes to foraging in woods and
fields is also a menace and should be shot on suspicion, for it undoubt-
edly preys on game birds, as it is known to do on song birds and
young rabbits.
In Maryland and Virginia the writer has found the crow plunder-
ing nests of the bobwhite, and in these States the crow is an
enemy also of poultry. Doctor Fisher states in his Hawks and Owls
of the United States that of the forty-odd species which he studied
he found only nine that killed the bobwhite. Four of these—the
goshawk, Cooper hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, and great-horned owl—
are very destructive to poultry as well as game. Dr. W. C. Strode,
of Bernadotte, Ill., writes that bobwhite’s worst enemy is the Cooper
hawk. “A few days ago one flew up from the roadside when I was
passing, and a bobwhite was dangling from one foot.” During
November, 1900, this species so persecuted the birds at Marshall Hall
that they were seldom found far from cover. In one instance a
hawk was seen to swoop to the ground and rise with a cock bobwhite.
The other species of hawks and owls rarely molest quail.
If bobwhites more frequently nested along fence rows instead of
in open mowing land, they would abound in many places where they
are rare. The mowing machine lays many nests bare, and they are
either despoiled by enemies or deserted by the old birds. At Sandy
Spring, Md., early in July, 1903, four nests with their eggs were cut
over in a 50-acre grass lot. In other hay fields several nests were dis-
covered in time to leave grass uncut about them, but boys robbed
them all. Between such lads and the crows and other enemies bob-
whites haye a hard time in certain sections.
To enable them to withstand the winter, bobwhites need suitable
PRESERVATION AND PROPAGATION. 238
food and cover. In severe winters coveys are sometimes saved by
being trapped and fed in confinement until spring. Naturally the
birds suffer most in the northern part of their range, but there are
reports of their death from severe and protracted cold in Maryland
and Virginia. Sandys says: “The birds know when the snow is
coming, and they creep under the brush, intending to remain there
until the weather has cleared. * * -* Then the rain comes and
wets the surface all about, then the sleet stiffens it, * * * the
cold becomes intense, and every foot of damp snow promptly hardens
into solid ice. * * * The quail are now imprisoned beneath a
dome of crystal, which may endure for days.”* H. C. Oberholser
says that in severe winters in Wayne County, Ohio, whole coveys
are found dead from this cause. Dr. P. L. Hatch reports that in
Minnesota the birds increase in numbers during vears with mild win-
ters and decrease when the winter is exceptionally severe.2- Wilson
Flagg states in Birds and Seasons of New England that thousands of
bobwhites were destroved by the deep snows of 1856-57. During the
very severe winter of 1903-1 bobwhites were nearly exterminated iu
portions of Massachusetts. That quail do not always succumb to
exceptional cold appears from the fact that in Susquehanna County,
Pa., at an altitude of 2,000 feet, W. W. Cooke found a covey of a
dozen bobwhites apparently in the best of condition on December 9,
1902, though a foot of snow covered the ground and the thermometer
stood at 20° below zero.
A study of the winter habits of the bobwhite by the writer in the
vicinity of Washington, D. C., so far has vielded only fragmentary
results. In February, 1900, after a foot of snow had fallen, in a eare-
ful two days’ search he failed to discover even a track «; a large
covey that usually frequented river flats along the Potomac at Mar:
shall Hall. The birds must have been under the snow or back in the
timber. At Falls Church, Va., after a lighter fall of snow he saw a
covey of five moving among briers on the edge of a wood, and
their fresh tracks showed that they had been feeding systematically
on rose hips, but had not ventured from cover. At Cabin John
Bridge, Md., after a snowfall of several inches his dog pointed six
birds on the south side of a river bluff, where the sun had melted holes
in the snow. On one of these bare spots he saw two birds, which
rose and were joined by four others. The covey had made wallows
2 inches deep in the leaf mold on the bare spots. All the birds had
avoided stepping on the snow. At hand was such food as the berries
of sumac and the seeds of Galactia volubilis and Chamechrista
fascicularis. TFExamination of the droppings indicated that less than
24Upland Gane Birds, p. 70, 1902.
> Notes on the Birds of Minnesota, p. 155, 1892,
5112—No, 21—05 m——-+4
24 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
one-tenth of the food had been animal matter, the remains of which
consisted of ants, the tibie: of grasshoppers, the spotted cuticle of sol-
dier bugs, and the cow-horn-like mandibles of spiders. So far as
could be made out, the remains of vegetable food consisted of the skin
of kernels of corn, fragments of the akenes of ragweed, and pulverized
bits of sumac seeds (Rhus copallina), partridge pea (Chamechrista
fasciculuris), milk pea (Galactia volubilis), and crownbeard (Ver-
besina), besides unidentified leaf material. The weather had been
severe for more than a week, but the birds were in good condition.
On the Marshall Hall farm, a short distance back from the banks
of the Potomac, is a swamp that has a steep bank with a southern
exposure where there is usually more or less bare ground in patches.
For several years bobwhites have made a winter haunt of this warm,
sunny bank, and here some interesting observations were made Feb-
ruary 18 and 19, 1902, when the snow was from 2 to 4 inches deep
and the minimum temperature was 4° F. above zero. A covey had
spent the night of February 17 not on the warm bank, comparatively
bare of snow, but on the level above the bank, where they had squatted
on the snow under a dewberry bush among broomsedge. Their feet
and droppings had melted the snow, and subsequent freezing had
formed an icy ring. The birds had not flown thither, but had walked
from the swamp up the steep bank and through the broomsedge
level. The next morning they had flown from the roost to the steep
slope, had run along the edge of the swamp to a bushy, tree-bordered
stream, then up its north bank for 300 yards and back on the south
bank, and thence to the steep, sunny slope again. On their journey
they had gone under every matted tangle of cat-brier vines—possibly
for berries, but more probably for protection. At one point they
had fed freely on sumac berries. The tracks of a fox were found
with those of the birds for about 100 yards. On the morning of
the 19th they traveled not more than 200 yards, this chiefly among
outstanding willows and alders of the swamp and along the belt of
land 5 to 20 yards wide between the boundary fence and the reeds
of the swamp. In one place two pairs of birds had walked so near
together as to cross one another’s tracks; two single birds had
made clear lines of tracks on one side of them, and a single bird had
walked alone on the other side from 1 to 4 feet from his nearest
companion. All had evidently eaten rose hips, mutilated remains
of which still clung to the bushes. The covey might have been
expected to range far and wide in the open fields for seeds and even
to straw ricks for grain, but except when traveling to their roost
they had never gone more than a rod from cover. Apparently fear
of enemies restrained them.
An article in the American Field, February 25, 1899, by the well-
known sportsman John Bolus, gf Wooster, Ohio, illustrates the hardi-
PRESERVATION AND PROPAGATION, 25
ness of the bobwhite. When several inches of snow were on the
ground and the thermometer registered from 15 to 27 degrees below
zero every night for a week, Mr. Bolus took a tramp to see how the
birds had fared. He found no dead birds, but saw six thrifty
coveys—81 birds in all. They were feeding on ragweed projecting
from the snow, and were jumping up to reach seeds on sprays above
their heads. Some coveys remained under shelter of little weed
patches, but others ranged over the more open fields.
In Maryland and Virginia large landowners often feed their birds
in severe weather. Wheat and corn are the best food, and should be
scattered, rf possible, among the briers where the birds are safe from
hawks. Bobwhites have been known to feed with chickens in barn-
yards. By a little forethought landowners and sportsmen can easily
make winter provision for their birds. Sumac bushes should be
left along hedgerows and the edge of woodland to furnish food
that is always above the snow and lasts well into spring. Twelve
bobwhites collected in December in North Dakota had made nine-
tenths of their food of sumac, having eaten from 50 to 300 berries
each. A similar use, in coast regions, of the bayberry and wax
myrtle has been noted. Their berries, as well as those of sumae,
last till May, and the plants should always be spared by everyone
who is interested in the welfare of the bobwhite. Smilax, affording
little food but fine cover, and wild roses, giving both food and cover,
are also valuable. Blackberry thickets, young pine woods, laurel,
and holly furnish safe retreats from enemies.
The farmer can well afford to feed the bobwhite in winter, but he
can not afford to spend as much time and money as the owner of game
preserves, and for the latter class further suggestions may be helpful.
In the Eastern and Southern States land that will not grow profitable
crops may be used for the game preserve, provided it has water and
bushy coverts. The use of the mowing machine, so destructive to
eggs and young birds, should be avoided when possible during the
breeding season. Wheat for the birds should be sown in long strips
not over 50 yards wide. The best of the grain may be harvested and
the rest left standing. On the stubble a luxuriant growth of ragweed
will generally spring up—a perfect food supply, except that it does
not last till spring; hence the need of sumac or bayberry. In regions
too dry for ragweed to grow in the stubble. sunflowers are an excellent
substitute. Sorghum, millet (Chetochloa), and possibly panicum
may be planted and left standing. Pop corn will be found particu-
larly valuable, as large corn can not easily be swallowed by the
younger birds. Buckwheat, and in the South the nutritious cowpea,
and the climbing false buckwheat, the thick tangles of which also
afford good cover, bear excellent food. Other plants of the genus
26 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
Polygouum ave fond of moist land, and furnish palatable seeds for
the bobwhite; for instance, black bindweed (Polygonum convolvu-
lus), Pennsyleania persicaria (Persicaria pennsyleanicum), and
black heart (Perstcaria lapathifolia). All wild Jeguminous plants
ghould be left undisturbed, for the birds feed on seeds of most of our
iegumes. Small clumps of locusts may well be left in open fields to
give both food and cover. Tick trefoil, bush clover, Japan clover,
the milkpea, and the wild bean—all wild plants—are suitable for
tood. Of the summer fruits the dewberry is the most important, and
in the absence of water furnishes a substitute; therefore these vines,
nearly everywhere plentiful, should be left in places remote from
water. A water supply is of course important. Streams with bush-
grown banks through open fields are most valuable. Beside them
will be found spreading panicum (Panicum proliferum), which shells
cut its grain a kernel or two at a time until well into spring. Birds
find food, shade, water, and shelter in the vegetation along small
streams. Marshes also afford coyer and food. If connected with
estuaries they often support a rank growth of wild rice, an ideal
provision for birds. Sufficient shelter to protect the birds from
hawks is almost indispensable. Oak and beech woods supply mast as
well as shelter, but pines afford the best cover, and some of them,
notably the longleaf pine, furnish food. .A comfortable retreat for
the coldest weather is invaluable. In Maryland and Virginia fields
of heavy broomsedge answer this purpose well, but best of all is a
steep bank with southern exposure, where the sun quickly melts the
snow, and gives the birds a chance to forage on bare spots for food
and gravel. If such a bank is not far from cover, and has a growth
of briers on it to give the birds a feeling of security, it will become a
favorite winter haunt and during severe weather is the best place to
scatter grain. With a lttle help from man the bobwhite will be
found to winter well even in the northern part of its range.
Bobwhite is prolific. A pair of birds under favorable conditions
will raise a dozen young in a season. Then, too, it is long lived, for
a bird kept in captivity is known to have reached the age of 9 years.*
The outlook for the future of the species is most satisfactory, pro-
vided it is given even a small amount of care, with proper legal pro-
tection. The Audubon societies, with a membership of 65,000 to
70,000, which cherish the bobwhite for esthetic and humanitarian rea-
sons, the sportsman who loves the whirr of its brown wings, and the
farmer, whose enemies it destroys and whose resources it increases,
can do much to favor the bird in its natural environment and to pro-
tect it by adequate and effectively enforced laws.
Forest and Stream, VII, p. 407, 1876.
\
FOOD HABITS. a7
FOOD HABITS OF BOBWHTITE.
Both field and laboratory investigations of the food habits of the
bobwhite have been conducted by the Biological Survey. The field
work was confined chiefly to Maryland and Virginia, and, although
it represents in some degree every month in the year, has been limited
mainly to the breeding and the hunting seasons. The laboratory
work to determine the different kinds of “Pood and their proportions
has included examination of the contents of crops and gizzards from
918 birds. This material was collected from 21 States, Canada, the
District of Columbia, and Mexico, but chiefly from New York, Mary-
jand, Virginia, Florida, Ilinois, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas,
and Texas. Stomachs were obtained each month of the year, but un-
fortunately few were collected in the breeding season. Laboratory
work included also feeding experiments with three pairs of captive
bobwhites obtained from Kansas.
The bird’s digestive organs are well adapted to the character of its
diet. The stomach, or gizzard, as it is commonly called, is provided
with powerful muscles for grinding the hard seeds on which the bird
largely subsists. The crop, a sac like enlargement of the cesophagus,
is a mere membranous receptacle for first receiving the food, and is
without muscles. Its capacity is usually from four to six times that
of the stomach. :
The bobwhite is insectivorous as well as graminivorous. It is, in
fact, one of our most nearly omnivorous species. In addition to
seeds, fruit, leaves, buds, tubers, and insects, it has been known to eat
spiders, myriapods, crustaceans, mollusks, and even batrachians.
The food for the year as a whole, calculated by volume and deter-
mined by analysis of the contents of 918 stomachs, consisted of vege-
table matter, 83.59 per cent, and animal matter, 16.41 per cent. In
addition, there was mineral matter varying in amount from ‘1 to 5
per cent of the gross contents of the stomachs, and in exceptional cases
rising to 30 per cent. This usually consisted of sand, with coarser
bits of quartz 2 to 7 mm. in diameter, which were taken to pulverize
the food and thus render it easier of assimilation.
The vegetable part of the food consisted of grain, 17.38 per cent;
‘various seeds, chiefly weeds, 52.83 per cent; fruit, 9.57 per cent, and
miscellaneous vegetable matter, 3.81 per cent. The animal matter in
the food was distributed as follows: Beetles, 6.92 per cent; grass-
hoppers, 3.71 per cent; bugs, 2.77 per cent; caterpillars, 0.95 per
cent; miscellaneous insects, 0.70 per cent; and other invertebrates,
largely spiders, 1.36 per cent.
The insect food of bobwhite, in comparison with that of other
birds, is interesting. It includes fewer caterpillars, ants, and other
Hymenoptera, but more bugs; and, singularly enough in a terrestrial
28 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES:
feeder, nearly twice as large a proportion of beetles as of grass-
hoppers. The meadow lark, per contra, another terrestrial feeder,
takes 29 per cent of grasshoppers and only 18 per cent of beetles.
The food of the bobwhite for the year is noteworthy in several
respects. Its character varies with the season. From October to
March it consists almost exclusively of vegetable matter—for Febru-
ary and March 99.8 per cent of vegetable food appearing in analysis—
while in late spring and in summer it is made up largely of insects,
August showing 44.1 per cent of insect food. The grain taken, as a
rule, is derived neither from newly sown fields nor from standing
crops, but is gleaned from stubble fields after harvest. Grain forms
a less prominent part of the food than the seeds of weeds, which are
the most important element of all and make up one-half of the food
for the year. The most distinctive feature of this, as a whole, is the
large proportion—15.52 per cent—of leguminous seeds, a food seldom
eaten by the various species of sparrows or other terrestrial feeders.
A small fraction of this seed comes from cultivated plants, especially
the cowpea; the rest is derived from wild plants, most of them
classed as weeds. Leguminous seeds appear to be most largely con-
sumed during December, when they form 25 per cent of the food.
The 15.05 per cent of insect food, although a comparatively small
part of the total, is of extreme importance, since it contains many
pests that are generally avoided by nongallinaceous birds. Note-
worthy among these are the potato beetle, twelve-spotted cucumber
beetle, striped cucumber beetle, squash ladybird beetle, various cut-
worms, the tobacco worm, army worm, cotton worm, cotton bollworm,
the clover weevil, cotton boll weevil, imbricated snout beetle, May
beetle, click beetle, the red-legged grasshopper, Rocky Mountain
locust, and chinch bug.
It should be observed that in the search for these pests and for
weed seeds the bobwhite, unlike many birds of the woodland, hedge-
row, and orchard, extends its foraging to the center of the largest
fields, thus protecting the growing crops.
GRAIN AS Foop.
Vegetable matter has long been known to be an important element
of the food of the bobwhite; indeed, many people suppose that it
constitutes the entire food of the bird. The impression that the bob-
white eats little else than grain has prevailed even among many
sportsmen who have bagged most of their game in the stubble field.
The present analysis, however, discloses that grain forms scarcely
more than one-sixth of the food. Laboratory study shows that it is
eaten in every month of the year, the maximum amount, 46 per cent
of the food for the month, having been taken in March. In the
FOOD HABITS. 29
specimens examined corn amounts to 11.96 per cent of the total food
for the year, while all other kinds of grain collectively amount to
only 5.42 per cent. Wheat (4.17 per cent) is next to corn in im-
portance. As experiments with captive birds failed to show marked
preference for either corn or wheat, the disproportion between the
two above noted is probably due to the fact that more corn than
wheat is grown in the country where our birds were obtained. The
remaining cereal food (1.25 per cent of the total) is miscellaneous
grain, including Kafir corn, sorghum, millet, buckwheat, barley,-oats,
and rye. ;
Grain-eating birds are likely to do much harm to crops. They may
pull up sprouting grain, plunder the standing crop when it is in the
milk, or forage among the sheaves at harvest time. The bobwhite,
however, is a notable exception. The period of germination is the
time when grain is liable to serious injury by birds. But not a sin-
gle sprouting kernel was found in the crops and stomachs of quails
examined. Field observations, during the years 1899 and 1900, at
Marshall Hall gave similar evidence. While crows injured sprout-
ing corn so seriously during May that several extensive replantings
were necessary, bobwhites, unusually abundant in the vicinity at the
same time, were never seen to disturb the germinating grain. During
November, 1899, sprouting wheat was saved from crow blackbirds
only by diligent use of the shotgun; but both then and in other sea-
sons the bobwhite was rarely observed in winter-wheat fields and
never was seen to molest the crop. Sprouting oats apparently were
not molested, though extended observations were not made. No data
are available for rye and millet, but in newly sown buckwheat fields
in Essex County, N. J., which the writer saw ravaged by doves, there
was no sign of injury by the bobwhites. Publications on economic
ornithology and reports received by the Biological Survey add tes-
timony of like character. It may safely be stated, therefore, that. so
far as at present known the bobwhite does no appreciable harm to
sprouting grain.
In order to learn to what extent the species injures ripening grain,
observations were made for several years at Marshall Hall. Unlike
the crow and several kinds of blackbirds, the bobwhite did no damage
there to corn in the milk, nor did it injure ripening wheat and oats.
Flocks of English sparrows, however, might be seen feeding on
wheat in the milk, and not uncommonly a score of goldfinches swayed
on the panicles of ripening oats. A hen bobwhite shot in a field of
ripe wheat, June 18, 1903, had much of the grain in its crop, though
whether obtained from standing heads or from fallen kernels did not
appear. As the bobwhite usually feeds on the ground, and as it was
never seen feeding from the stalk at Marshall Hall, it appears prob-
able that it seeks only the fallen grain, At wheat harvest it follows
80 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
the binder, and at Marshall Hall was often seen in the harvest field
picking up scattered wheat. It was not observed there on the shocks,
appearing to find ay abundance of waste kernels. At corn harvest
also bobwhite takes its share from exposed ears; but the bird is not
able to shuck corn, as do the crow and the wild goose. Several crops
of ripe oats at Marshall Hall were watched during harvest time and
furnished no evidence against the bobwhite. No report of injury
by it elsewhere at harvest time has come to the Biological Survey,
though damage may be done where peculiar local conditions conjoin
sith an overabundance of birds.
The bobwhite, however, is a persistent stubble feeder. As Mr.
Sandys puts it, “He is the gleaner who never reaps, who guards the
growing crops, who glories over a bounteous yield, yet is content to
watch and wait for those lost grains which fall to him by right.”
Where fields of wheat stubble support a rank growth of ragweed the
sportsman is most likely to find a feeding covey. At Marshall Hall,
during September, October, and November, such fields are the favorite
haunts of the birds. On this farm corn has a greater acreage than
wheat, but the birds are much less often found in corn stubble; and,
as stomach examinations show, they eat much less corn than wheat.
Since experiments with captive birds showed no preference for wheat,
food other than grain may have kept them on the wheat stubble.
Along. the Roanoke in Virginia, where wheat is not grown, bobwhites
feed in corn fields.
' On the Western prairies, where cornstalks left standing in the fields
afford good cover, the birds are more often found in cornfields. Six
birds collected from such fields in November, 1891, at Badger, Nebr.,
contained 181 whole kernels of corn; the smallest number in a crop
was 20 and the largest 48.
It is not unusual to find from 100 to 200 grains of wheat in a crop.
A bobwhite shot at West Appomattox, Va., in December, 1902, had
its crop distended almost to bursting with 508 grains of wheat. This
habit of gleaning waste grain after harvest is beneficial to the farm,
for volunteer grain is not desirable, especially where certain insect
pests or parasitic fungi are to be combated. As the scattered kernels
are often too far afield to be gathered by domestic poultry, the serv-
ices of the bobwhite in this respect are especially useful.
The bobwhite sometimes eats the seeds of certain cultivated legu-
minous plants. Both the black-eye and the clay cowpeas (Vignu sinen-
sis) have been found in stomachs, and one contained 35 peas of the lat-
_ter variety. In Westmoreland and Mecklenburg counties, Va., cowpea
patches are favorite resorts for the birds in-November and December.
Garden peas were found in crops collected by Mr. Walter Hoxie at
Frogmore, 8. C. It rare instances the bobwhite picks up clover
FOOD HABITS. 31
seeds, and it has been known to eat a lima bean. It may take also
Kafr corn and sorghum, and it has a decided liking for millet
(Chutochloa italica), a taste particularly noticeable in birds of Kan-
sas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. A crop from Onaga, Kans.. con-
tained 1,000 millet seeds. No significant damage to millet has been
reported and the birds may secure most of this food from stubble
fields.
WEED SEEDS AS Foop.
Weeds appropriate the space, light, water, and food of the plants
that directly or indirectly support man. A million weeds may spring
ep on a single acre, and a single plant of one of these species may
mature 100,000 seeds in a season. This process. if unchecked. may
produce in the spring of the third year 10,000,000.000 weeds. The
problem of weed destruction is perennial in every land; indeed, soil
culture may be called a never ceasing war against weeds. Of the
birds that aid the farmer in this strug-
gle the bobwhite, the native sparrows,
and the mourning dove are the most |,
efficient. They attack weeds at that ¢
vital stage—the seed period—hence & 4
their work, especially against the an- ge
nuals which depend on seeds for per- 8
petuation, is of enormous practical Rc
value. Fig. 1.—Seed of witeh grass eae
The bobwhite is preeminently a capillare). (From Bull. 38, Nevada
seed eater, 52.83 per cent of its food A#ricutural Experiment Station.)
for the year consisting of seeds. The bulk of these are the seeds
of plants belonging to the general category of weeds. Many of
them are injurious plants with which the farmer is constantly at
strife; others are less noxious and some are seldom, if ever, trouble-
some. Sixty-odd species are known to be eaten, and thorough obser-
vations would probably raise the number to a hundred or more. The
food of no other bird with which the writer is acquainted is so varied.
At Marshall Hall and in Mecklenburg and Westmoreland counties.
Va., a somewhat detailed study was made of the weed seed eaten
by the bird. At Marshall Hall fields of wheat stubble grown up
to ragweed were favorite feeding grounds. Among others found
there were buttonweed seeds. each like a miniature hérsehoof, com-
plete even to the frog; 29 or 30 of these were sometimes contained in
a single stomach. A number of birds shot on wheat stubble had eaten
largely of bastard pennyroyal seeds, which are rough and resemble
blackberry seeds. Goldfinches and other seed eateys also find these
palatable. Along ditches the abundant grasses—witch grass (fig. 1)
and spreading panicum—provide the birds with shade in summer and
5112—No. 21—05 M
5
34 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
eaten at a meal may suggest the value of the bird as a weed destroyer.
As many as 200 to 300 smartweed seeds, 500 seeds of red sorrel, and
700 seeds of: three-seeded mercury have been taken at a meal. Crops
and stomachs crammed with nothing but ragweed seeds are often
found. A bird shot November 6, 1902, at Marshall Hall, had eaten
1,000 ragweed akenes; another killed there the previous November
had eaten as many seeds of crab grass. Birds shot in Mecklenburz
County, Va., contained about 2,000 leguminous seeds, mainly tick-
trefoil, and various kinds of bush clover. A bird shot in October,
1902, at Pine Brook, N. J., had eaten 5,000 seeds of green foxtail
grass, and one killed on Christmas day, 1901, at Kinsale, Va., had
taken about 10,000 pigweed seeds.
LIST OF WEED SEEDS EATEN.
The list of seeds eaten, excluding mast and pine seeds, is as follows:
Slender paspalum (Paspalum seta-
ceum).
Slender finger grass (Syntherisma fili-
formis).
‘Crab grass (Syntherisma sanguinalis).
Barnyard grass (Hechinochloa crus-
gauli).
Barbed panicum
tun).
Switch grass, tall smooth
(Panicum virgatum).
Spreading panicum (Panicum
erm).
Witch grass (Panicum capillare).
Yellow foxtail (Chetochloa glanea).
Green foxtail (Chetochloa viridis).
Timothy (Phleum pratense).
Sheathed rush grass (Sporobolus vagi-
neflorus).
Slender spike grass (Uniola lara).
Wild rice (Zizania aquatica).
Nut grass (Cyperus rotundus).
Rush (Seirpus?).
Sedge (Carer sp.).
Tussock sedge (Carer stricta).
Skunk cabbage (Spathyema fetida).
Red sorrel (Rumer acetosella).
Curled dock (Rumer crispus),
(Panicum barbula-
panicum
prolif-
Pale persicaria (Persicaria lopathi-
folia).
Pennsylvania persicaria (Persicaria
pennsylranica).
Smartweed (Persicaria hydropiper).
Knotweed (Polygonim aviculare).
Black bindweed (Polygonum convolvu-
lus).
Climbing false buckwheat (Tiniaria
scandens).
T.amb’s - quarters
bum).
Rough pigweed
flexus).
Carpet weed (Mollugo verticillata).
Corn cockle (Agrostemma githago).
Chickweed (Alsine media).
Charlock (Raphanus raphanistrum).
Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana).
Acacia (Acacia sp.).
Redbud (Cercis canadensis).
Sensitive pea (Chamecrista nictitans).
Partridge pea (Chamecrista fascicu-
laris),
Cassia (Cassia sp.).
Lupine (Lupinus sp.).
Clover (Trifolium sp.).
Trefoil (Lotus sp.).
Psoralea (Psoralea sp.).
Locust (Robinia pseudacacia).
Florida coffee (Sesban macrocarpa).
Tick-trefoil (Meibomia nudiflora and
M. grandiflora).
Hairy bush clover (Lespedeza hirta).
Creeping bush clover (Lespedeza re-
pens),
Bush clover (Lespedeza violacea).
Japan clover (Lespedeza striata).
Vetch (Vicia sp.).
Hog peanut (Falcata comosa).
(Chenopodium al-
(Amaranthus retro-
FOOD HABITS.
Downy milkpea (Galactia volubilis).
Prairie rhynehosia (Dolicholus latifo-
lius),
Trailing wild bean (Ntrophostyles hel-
reola).
Pink wild bean (Strophostyles umbel-
lata).
Crane’s bill (Geraniion carolinianum).
Yellow sorrel (O.ralis stricta).
Croton (Croton sp.).
Texas croton (Croton te.rensis).
Three-seeded mercury (Acalypha gla-
CONS).
Spotted spurge (Euphorbia maculata).
Flowering spurge (Euphorbia corol-
lata).
Red maple (Acer rubrum).
Box elder (Rulac negundo).
Jewel weed (Jinpatiens sp.).
Sida (Nida spinosa).
Violet (Viola sp.).
Ash (Fraxrinus sp.).
Morning glory (Ipom«ra sp.).
35
Bindweed (Convolvulus sp.).
Corn gromwell (Lithospermum — ar-
reHnse).
Hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canes-
cens),
Gromwell (Lithospermuin officinale).
Vervain (Verbena stricta).
Bastard —pennyroyal (Trichostema
dichotomum),
Ribgrass (Plantago lanceolata).
Button weed (Diodia teres).
Trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans).
Orange hawkweed (Hicracium auran-
tiacum).
Marsh elder (Iva ciliata).
Giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida).
Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisirfolia).
Everlasting (Antennaria sp.).
Sunflower (Helianthus sp.).
Common sunflower (Helianthus an-
NUUS).
Crownbeard (Verbesina sp.).
Beggar ticks (Bidens sp.).
Mast AND PINE SEEDS AS Foon.
Mast, including acorns of the swamp oak (Quercus palustris), the
white oak (Q. alba), beechnuts. the blue beech (Carpinus carolini-
ana), and the chestnut, amounts to 2.47 per cent of the food of the
year.
In the pine lands of Florida the bobwhite freely eats the seeds of
the long-leaf pine (Pinus palustris). Of the 39 birds from Walton
County (November, December, and January, 1902 and 1903), 21 had
their crops and stomachs mainly filled with this nutritious food.
They had usually clipped off the wings of the samaras close to the
large seeds. Several crops were full of germinating pine seeds, some
of the embryos having cotyledons 2 inches long. In the region about
Washington the seeds of the scrub pine (Pinus virginiana) also are
eaten to a small extent. The fact that these seeds are a good winter
food should be remembered by holders of game preserves. Observa-
tions show that the key seeds of the maple also are eaten, though
much less extensively.
Fruit as Foop.
Unlike the catbird and the cedarbird, whose food consists, respec-
tively, of 50 and 87 per cent of fruit, the food of bobwhite for the
year includes only 9.57 per cent of fruit. It is least frugivorous
in spring and most so in June and in December and January, taking
20.1 per cent in the summer month and a little over 18 per cent during
the two winter months. If more birds collected in June had been
36 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
available for examination, probably the percentage of fruit would
have been lower. The December percentage is evidently character-
istic, for it was based on the examination of about 200 stomachs.
In early spring wild winter-cured berries, in May strawberries,
later the Rubus fruits—thimbleberry, dewberry, and highbush black-
berry—and in late summer and autumn an endless profusion of the
year’s wild harvest yield the bobwhite an accessible and abundant
food supply. In late fall and winter, when snow covers the seeds,
fruit doubtless keeps it from starving. In December it forms nearly
one-fifth of the food for the month. Sumac, wax-myrtle, rose, and
bayberry are the main winter supply. Poison-ivy berries are eaten
occasionally. Rose hips often project from the snow and furnish
timely food. At Falls Church, Va., and at Cabin John Bridge and
Marshall Hall, Md., tracks of coveys in deep snow led up to rose
shoots to which partly eaten hips were clinging. Sumac and other
plants of the genus Rhus form 1.60 per cent of the annual food, and
during December the proportion of Riis alone is 10.50 per cent. Of
12 birds shot during December at Porters Landing, S. Dak., near the
bobwhite’s northern limit, by W. C. Colt, each had eaten from 100 to
300 of the carmine sumac berries, and altogether the sumac had
‘furnished 90 per cent of the food they contained. Bayberry and
wax-myrtle are as important along the coast as sumacs are inland.
Berries of wax-myrtle were found in the stomachs of 15 out of 39
birds collected during November, December, and January, 1902 and
1903, in Walton County, Fla. One hundred and twenty bayberries
had been eaten by one bird taken in July, 1901, at Shelter Island,
N. Y. Both these fruits last through the winter and well into May,
affording excellent provision just when it is most needed.
In spite of its frugivorous tastes and constant association with
orchard crops, the bobwhite is not often known to injure cultivated
fruits. M. B. Waite reports that near Odenton, Md., it sometimes
picks ripening strawberries. Yet birds that were kept in captivity
several months refused strawberries when they were hungry. Cul-
tivated cherries were found in a few stomachs, but the bobwhite is
not an arboreal feeder and does not damage this crop. During June
at Marshall Hall it was repeatedly observed feeding greedily upon
the fruit of running dewberry vines. It probably does no serious
harm, however, to cultivated bush varieties of Rubus, such as the
thimbleberry, the raspberry, and the blackberry. It is fond of wild
grapes, and a number of crops each contained as many as 25 frost
grapes (Vitis cordifolia). Wlence it might be expected to injure
cultivated varieties, for its relative, the California quail, sometimes
plunders vineyards; but, so far as the writer knows, vineyards in the
East have sustained no appreciable damage from the bobwhite.
In summing up the frugivorous habits of the bobwhite, it may be
FOOD HABITS. 87
said that the present investigation shows no appreciable injury to
cultivated fruit, but a marked liking for wild fruit. It may be
interesting to note, also, that the bobwhite is not nearly so frugiv-
orous as the ruffed grouse.
LIST OF FRUITS EATEN.
Although the percentage of wild fruits yearly consumed is compar-
atively small, the variety is great, as shown by the appended list,
which ineludes only those actually ascertained to have been eaten. A
few careful observers could easily double the number.
Cabbage palmetto (Inodes palmetto). Smooth scarlet sumac (Rhus glabra).
Saw palmetto (Serenoa serrulata). Holly (/lexr opaca).
Solomon’s seal (Polygonatuim). Black alder (Ilex verticillata).
Greenbrier (Smilax sp.). Climbing bittersweet (Celastrus scan-
Wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera). dens).
Bayberry (Myrica carolinensis), Frost grape (Vitis cordifolia).
Mulberry (Morus rubra). Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).
Sassafras (Sassafras sassafras). Sour gum (Vyssa sylratica).
Thimbleberry (Rubus occidentalis). Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens).
High bush blackberry (Rubus nigro- Wuckleberry (Gaylussacia sp.).
baccus). Blueberry (Vaccinium sp.).
Dewberry (Rubus procumbens). Ground-cherry (Physalis pubescens).
Strawberry (Fragaria sp.). Nightshade (Solanum nigrum).
Rose (Rosa). Elder (Sambucus canadensis).
Haw (Cratequs sp.). Black haw (Viburnum prunifolium). -
Apple (Jfalus malus). Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.).
Cultivated cherry (Prunus sp.). Partridge berry (IM/itchella repens).
Wild cherry (Prunus serotina). Sarsaparilla (Aralia).
Poison ivy (Rhus radicans). Woodbine (Parthenocissus quinquefo-
Dwarf sumac (Rhus copallina). lia).
Staghorn sumac (hus hirta).
LEAVES AND Bups as Foop.
The bobwhite does not approach the ruffed grouse in destructive-
ness to leaves, buds, and tender shoots, though occasionally it samples
them. It eats the leaves of sorrel sometimes, both yellow sorrel
(Oxalis stricta) and red sorrel (Rumexr acetosella). It has been
known to take the leaves of cinquefoil (Potentilla), and is extremely
fond of both red and white clover. Captive birds ate grass, lettuce,
and chickweed.
INSECTS AS Foon.
Notwithstanding statements to the contrary, published and unpub-
lished, the bobwhite eats insects in every month of the year. They
form 15.05 per cent of its entire food for the year. From June to
August, inclusive, when insects are most numerous, their proportion
in the food is 35.97 per cent. The variety of insect food is large.
38 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
In the present investigation 116 species have been noted, and further
study will doubtless greatly increase the number. Moreover, the
large proportion of injurious insects habitually eaten renders the
services of this bird more valuable than those of many birds whose
percentage of insect food, though greater, includes a smaller propor-
tion of injurious species. Conspicuous among the pests destroyed
are the Colorado potato beetle, twelve-spotted cucumber beetle, bean
leaf-beetle, squash ladybird, wireworms and their beetle, and May
beetles. Its food also includes such weevils as corn billbugs, imbri-
cated snout beetle, clover leaf weevil, cotton boll weevil; also the
striped garden caterpillar, army worm, cotton bollworm, and various
species of cutworms; also the corn-louse ants, red-legged grasshopper,
Rocky Mountain locust, and chinch bug. The bobwhite does not
merely sample these species, as do many other birds; it eats
some of them in considerable numbers, for crops examined have
contained, respectively, a dozen cutworms, an equal number of army
worms, 30 Rocky Mountain locusts, and 47 cotton boll weevils. This
bird also destroys striped cucumber beetles by the score, potato beetles
by the hundred, and chinch bugs in great numbers. From June to
August, inclusive, insects and their allies form, as previously men-
tioned, about a third of the food: Of this beetles make up nearly
half, or 15.37 per cent; bugs, 8.54 per cent; caterpillars, 1.37 per cent;
grasshoppers, 6.93 per cent; miscellaneous insects, 1.33 per cent, and
spiders, with other invertebrates, 2.43 per cent.
BEETLES EATEN.
The beetles most largely destroyed are ground beetles, leaf-eating
beetles, and weevils. Naturally, because of the terrestrial habits of
the bobwhite, ground beetles, in spite of their vile odor and irritating
secretions, are picked up oftener than the other kinds. Experiments
with caged birds prove that even the most pungent forms are relished.
Ground beetles are numerous in species and superabundant in indi-
viduals. One can form no adequate idea of their numbers except at
night. Are lights kill them by thousands. The writer has known
one species (arpalus pennsylvanicus) to enter open windows in the
evening in swarms. They have an irritating secretion, which if
applied to the skin soon raises a blister. Ground beetles are more or
less predaceous, hence the whole family was formerly considered
beneficial. Later study has resulted in their division into three
classes: The most carnivorous species, possessing sharp, curved jaws
for capturing and killing other insects; the least predaceous forms,
having blunt jaws and eating considerable vegetable matter; and a
class intermediate between these two. The first class contains highly
beneficial beetles which destroy great numbers of insect pests, while
the blunt-jawed class includes some injurious species that feed on
FOOD HABITS. 89
crops. Only a few of the bobwhite stomachs examined contained
the useful sharp-jawed beetles, but many contained the blunt-jawed
species, especially such forms as Amara sp., Lgonoderus pullipes,
-Lnisodactylus baltimorensis, Anisodactylus rusticus, Larpalus penn-
sylvanicus, and Harpalus caliginosus: At Marshall Hall, in August;
1902, a covey of bobwhites was seen greedily eating beetles of the two
species of Hurpulus named above, which were numerous ine wheat
stubble overgrown by fagweed. The meadow lark, also, was feeding
on them. The liking of the bobwhite for Zarpalus pennsylvanicus
was further proved by experiments with caged birds. It eats also
the larve of these beetles, as do the robin and several other birds.
Though the genus Harpalus as a whole is useful, destruction of these
two species is not amiss, for they injure ripening strawberries by
eating out the seeds. Through their depredations on a quarter-acre
patch a grower at Leesburg, Va., in three nights lost $350 worth of
fruit. The nature of the injury by the beetle has so far made reme-
dial measures impracticable; therefore, the work of the bobwhite
and other birds should be estimated at its full value.
Leaf-eating beetles, next in importance after ground beetles in the
diet of the bobwhite, include many of the worst beetle pests, and
members of the family not already actively injurious are potentially
so. These beetles also are provided with protective secretions, more
effectively repellant in the larger species, at least, than those of
ground beetles, but luckily ineffectual against bobwhite. He eats
the most injurious of these insects, such as the potato beetle (Leptz-
notarsa decemlineata), the striped cucumber beetle (Diabrotica vit-
tata), the twelve-spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica 12-punctata),
and the squash ladybird (E'pilachnu borealis). The first nained is
perhaps more correctly termed the Colorado potato beetle. It was
a native of the Rocky Mountains originally, feeding on the horse-
nettle (Solunum rostratum), a plant related to the potato. It began
to migrate eastward a year or two before the civil war. and fifteen
or sixteen years later reached the Atlantic coast. Since then, as
every one knows, this beetle has threatened the potato crop of the
country. Birds as a rule avoid it because of its secretions. There-
fore the bobwhite’s services in destroying it should be highly valued,
the more so because the bird’s habit of eating the potato bug is not.
merely occasional nor limited to special localities. Records have
come to the Biological Survey from New Jersey, Virginia, Mary-
land, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and Ontario; and it is believed
that more extended observations will show that the habit is general
wherever the birds and the beetles inhabit the same district. During
the last week of June, at Marshall Hall, a pair of birds was observed
patroling rows of badly infested potato vines and diligently picking
off the beetles. Writing of the bird’s relation to this insect, C. E.
Re
40 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
Romaine, of Crockett, Tex., says: “ Quail have built their nests
around my fence and even in my garden, within 50 feet of my house.
They have kept my potato patch entirely free from the Colorado
potato bug.” Three captive bobwhites dispatched 50 potato beetles
in five minutes, swallowing them whole, apparently with great zest.
No food offered them was eaten with more avidity. Thomas MclIl-
wraith says a recent writer mentions that he examined the crop of
one which was killed as it rose from a potato patch and found that
it contained 75 potato bugs.* Lawrence Bruner reports 101 of these
beetles found in a single crop.” Such wholesale destruction of these
pests throughout a large territory is an invaluable aid to agriculture.
The two species of cucumber beetles (Diabrotica vittata and D.
12-punctata) are highly injurious to cucumbers, squashes, melons,
and corn, much of the harm being caused by their larve, which feed
on the roots of infested crops and are difficult to combat successfully
with insecticides. The bobwhite eats them freely without ill effect,
though examination seldom reveals them in the stomachs of other
birds. Indeed, captive birds of all the other species experimented
with have refused them, probably because of their offensive secre-
tions.
To some extent the bobwhite feeds also on certain leaf beetles,
known, from their jumping powers, as flea beetles. Its favorites
appear to be the three-lined potato beetle (Lema trilineata), some-
times an ally of the potato beetle in the potato patch, @dionychus
fimbriata, and several members of the genus Disonycha. The golden
tortoise beetle (Coptocycla bicolor), an insect that looks like a drop
of molten gold and is an enemy of the sweet potato, is also eaten.
The locust leaf-mining beetle (Odontota dorsalis) is another victim
of the bird. Its larve tunnel between the surfaces of locust leaves
and kill the foliage. In 1895 the ravages of this pest turned the
locust-fringed bluffs on the Potomac below Washington as brown as
if touched by fire.
The agriculturist finds weevils hard to cope with, on account of
their small size, protective coloration, and retiring mode of life.
Birds, however, destroy them in large numbers, often a score or two
at a meal, and bobwhite does his share of the work. He often eats
two common species that feed on clover leaves (Sitones hispidulus
and Phytonomus punctatus), and preys also on the two billbugs
(Sphenophorus parvulus and Sphenophorus zee), the latter injurious
to corn. He relishes also that notorious garden pest, the imbricated
snout beetle. His most important weevil prey is the Mexican cotton
boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis). In 1894 this insect first crossed
the Mexican border into Texas. During 1903 it caused a loss of
2 Birds of Ontario, p. 170, 1894. > Notes on Nebraska Birds, p. 80, 1896.
FOOD HABITS. 41
$15,000,000. Though still chiefly confined to Texas, in time it will
undoubtedly occupy the whole cotton belt and do a tremendous
amount of harm. The bobwhite is fond of this pest. F. M. Howard,
of Beeville, Tex., in writing to the Bureau of Entomology, says that
the crops of bobwhites shot at Beeville, Tex., were filled with these
weevils... H. G. Wood, of Cuero, Tex., in a letter dated September
21, 1901, relating to the weevil scourge, says:
Several of our business men and farmers are of the opinion that the quail
can be made a vehicle for the destruction of the cotton boll weevil. One farmer
reports his cotton fields full of quail, and the entire absence of weevils. He
found 47 weevils in the craw of one bird. * * * TI claim quail are the
greatest insect destroyers of all birds. * * * We propose to prohibit the
killing of quail in this county this season, hoping thereby to save a great por-
tion of the cotton crop next season.
The click beetles, the larvee of which are the wireworms so inim-
ical to corn and other plants of the grass family; scarabeid beetles,
though in smaller numbers; dung beetles, when numerous, and May
beetles, parents of the injurious white grub, are eaten by the bobwhite.
The May beetle (Lachnosterna sp.) and itsnear relative, Ligyrus gib-
bosus, were eagerly eaten by captive birds. The useful ladybirds
(Coccinellidw) are sometimes found in the bird’s crop, but, judging
from experiments with caged birds, do not appear to be highly rel-
ished. Adalia bipunctuta was several times offered and refused, but.
was finally eaten. The one harmful beetle of the family, the squash
ladybird (Epilachna borealis), has been found in stomachs and was
relished by captive birds. Certain miscellaneous beetles belonging
to different families are occasionally picked up, such as rove beetles,
soldier beetles, darkling beetles, histerid beetles, and longicorn beetles.
LIST OF BEETLES EATEN.
The beetles known to be eaten by the bobwhite include the fol-
lowing:
GrounpD BEETLES (Carabide) : LEAF BEETLES—Continued.
Scarites subterraneus. Nodonota tristis.
Amara sp. Leptinotarsa decemlineata (potato
Casnonia pennsylvanica, beetle).
Platynus extensicollis. Chrysomela pulchra.
Agonoderus pallipes. Chrysomela suturalis.
Harpalus pennsylvanicus. Cerotoma trifurcata (bean leaf-
Harpalus calignosus, beetle).
Anisodactylus rusticus. Diabrotica vittata (striped cucum-
Anisodactylus baltimorensis. ber beetle).
Lear Beetles (Chrysomelide) : Diabrotica 12-punetata (twelve-spot-
Lema trilineata. ted cucumber beetle).
Cryptocephalus venustus. Gdionychis fimbriata.
Colaspis brunnea. Disonycha 5-vittata.
«Circular 27, new series, Division of Entomology, p. 6, 1897.
49
Lear Beertes—Continued.
Disonycha ranthomeleua,
Disonych a crenicollis,
Psylliodes punctulata:
Microrhopata vittata: fos, od
Odontota dorsalis Cocust léaf-min-
ing beetle).
Coptocycla bicolor (golden tortoise
béetle):
May BEetites (Scarabseide) :
Onthophagus pennsylvanieus (dung
beetle).
Aphodius inguinatus (dung beetlé).
Serica sp.
Diplotaxis sp. (leaf-chafer).
Lachnosterna tristis (May beetle).
Anomala sp.
Aphonus sp.
Snovur BEETLES (suborder Rhynchoph-
ora):
Thecesternus humeralis.
Epicerus imnbricatus (imbricated
snout beetle).
Tanymecus confertus.
Aramigus fulleri (Fuller’s rose
beetle).
Sitones hispidulus (clover weevil).
Phytonomus punctatus (clover-leaf
weevil).
BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
Snout Brettes—Continued.
Anthonomus grandis (Mexican cot-
ton boll weevil).
Chaleodermus collaris:
Centrinus sp. af
Sphenophorus parbilus (pillbug).
Sphenophorus zew (corn billbug).
Crick BEETLES (Blaterids):
Drasterius elegans:
Agriotés sp:
Melanotus communis:
Corymbites sp.
Lapysirps (Coccinellidee) :
Hippodamia parenthesis.
Coccinella sanguinea.
Adalia bipunctata.
Epilachna borealis
bird).
HIsTeRID BEETLES (Histeride).
DARKLING BreTLes (Tenebrionide) :
Blapstinus.
Rove BeEetites (Staphylinide).
SoLprer BEETLES (Lampyride) :
Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus.
Loncicorn BEETLES (Cerambycide) :
Tetraopes tetraophthalmus.
(squash lady-
Gs
BUGS EATEN.
The bobwhite eats comparatively more bugs than most birds, in-
cluding both Heteroptera, or true bugs, and Homoptera, which form
2.77 per cent of its food. The maximum number of bugs was taken
in August and amounted to 21.1 per cent of the food for that month.
The chinch bug, which in this country has destroyed over $100,000,-
000 worth of wheat and other cereals in a season, is preyed upon by
the bobwhite throughout the year. C. V. Riley says: “ In the winter
time, when hard pushed for food, this bird must devour immense
numbers of the little pests, which winter in just such situations as are
frequented by the quail; and this bird should be protected from the
gun of the sportsman in every State where the chinch bug is known
to run riot.”* The data possessed by the Biological Survey concern-
ing this species are scanty, but they show that the quail destroys the
pest in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska.
The number of chinch bugs eaten varies, but usually appears to be
large. Thus a bird shot October 12, 1901, at Badger, Nebr., by
W. C. Colt, had picked up 100, and the American Field for February
« Missouri Reports, II, p. 28, 1870.
FOOD HABITS. 43
21, 1903, reports that an observer at Seymour, Ind., found a teaspoon-
ful in a crop. In a letter to the Department of Agriculture, M. A.
Page, of Garnett, Kans., says of a bobwhite: * On opening the crop
we found about two tablespoonfuls of chinch bugs.”
The bobwhite also destroys the false chinch bug (ysis angusta-
tux), which attacks grapes, strawberries, apples, potatoes, turnips,
radishes, beets, and cabbages. It eats the tarnished plant bug (Lygus
pratensis), injurious to fruit and truck crops, and stink bugs of more
than a dozen species, one (Luschistus variolarius) being a pest on
many garden vegetables. The noninjurious species, particularly
Thyanta custator, are often eaten, one bird containing 30 of them.
More Homoptera (leaf hoppers and other forms) are eaten by bob-
white than by most other birds. The little leaf hopper (Oncometopia
lateralis) is especially relished.
LIST OF BUGS EATEN.
HIETEROPTERA : HeETEROPTERA—Continued.
Blissus leucopterus (chinch bug). Cenus delius.
Vysius angustatus (false chinch Peribalus limbolarius.
bug). Lygus pratensis (tarnished plant
Buschistus tristigmus (three-spotted bug).
soldier bug}.
Buschistus variolarius.
Huschistus sp.
Podisus sp.
Brochymena sp.
Nezara hilaris.
Mormidcea lugens.
Hymenarcys nervosa.
Aymenarcys irqualis,
Thyanta custator.
Gobalus pugnazr.
Trichopepla semivittata.
Corimelena sp.
Apiomerus crassipes.
Alydus eurinus.
Corizus sp.
ELuthoctha galeator.
Scutellcridw (shield-backed bugs).
HOMOPTERA :
Oncometopia lateralis.
Oncometopia sp.
Deltocephalus sp.
Diedrocephala sp.
GRASSHOPPERS AND ALLIED INSECTS EATEN.
Grasshoppers with a few crickets make 3.71 per cent of the yearly
food. In September they contribute 11.9 per cent. The walking
stick, singularly like a twig and at times very numerous and injuri-
ous to foliage of shade and forest trees, has been found in the stomach
of the bobwhite. Locusts and meadow grasshoppers, both highly
destructive to vegetation, are favorite articles of dict. The bird
grasshopper, so called from its size, is occasionally eaten. The de-
structive grasshoppers or locusts of the genus JJeinoplus, such as
M. atlanis, M. femur-rubrum, or the red-legged grasshopper, and the
Rocky Mountain locust, form the bulk of the orthopterous food of
the species. The Rocky Mountain locust is one of the worst of insect
pests, and its appearance in large numbers is a calainity. TH appears
in swarms, clouding the sun and covering the earth, sweeping every
44 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
green thing before it, and often driving the farmer from home and
threatening him with starvation. During a single season it has
caused a loss of $100,000,000.
In 1874-75 Samuel Aughey made a special study of a Nebraska
invasion and found that the bobwhites were an active enemy of the
locusts. Of 21 birds shot between May and October, inclusive, all
but five had fed on locusts. The smallest number taken by any bird
was 20 and the largest 39; in all, 539—an average of 25 apiece. C.V. -
Riley ascertained that the bird feeds also on the eggs of the locust,
particularly in winter, when they are exposed by the freezing and
thawing of the ground. If every covey destroyed as many locusts
in a day as the one just referred to, it is hard to overestimate the
usefulness of the bobwhite where abundant in infested regions.
The following are a few of the many species of orthopterous
insects identified from the crops and stomachs of bobwhites:
Cricket (Gryllus sp.). Red-legged grasshopper (Melanoplus
Meadow grasshoppers (Xiphidium, Or- femur-rubrum).
chelinum, Scudderia). Grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus,
Katydid (Microcentrum sp.). M. scudderi, M. atlanis).
Walking sticks (Phasmida). Bird grasshopper (Schistocerca ameri-
Grouse locust (Tettixr sp.). cana). ‘
Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus). |
CATERPILLARS EATEN.
The bobwhite seems to eat fewer caterpillars than would be ex-
pected from its terrestrial habits. The yearly proportion only
formed 0.95 per cent and the maximum quantity eaten in a month
was 4 per cent in May. This apparent neglect of caterpillars as food
is perhaps due to their scarcity where the birds for the present study
were shot.“ Pupe and adult moths occasionally serve as food.
Whatever the list of species of caterpillars eaten by bobwhite lacks
in length it makes up in importance, for so great a proportion of
serious lepidopterous pests is seldom found in the fare of any bird.
As is true of some other birds, the bobwhite includes the army worm
in its bill of fare. This pest sometimes exists in legions and moves
steadily forward from field to field, devouring corn, oats, forage, and
other crops. Fortunately it is not often active, and the years of its
occurrence are frequently separated by long intervals. Every year, .
however, the different species of cutworms do serious damage. They
cut down germinating grain, often before the plants have fairly
sprung above ground. Owing to their mode of feeding, a few worms
may lop off many plants in a night. It seems strange that the bob-
whites find as many of these nocturnal larve as they do. The cotton
worm, a pest so destructive that in one year it has caused a loss of
$30,000,000 to the cotton fields, is preyed upon by the bobwhite. To-
bacco worms were sparingly eaten by bobwhites at Marshall Hall,
FOOD HABITS. 45
but experiments indicated that they may eat them in greater numbers
when opportunity offers. Five tobacco worms (Phlegethontius
seata), two-thirds grown, placed in a cage with three captive bob-
whites, July 8, 1908, were devoured in less than two minutes. Cab-
bage worms (Pontia rapw) and cutworms also were offered and
greedily eaten.
LIST OF CATERPILLARS EATEN.
Army worm (Heliophila unipuncta). Yellow bear caterpillar (Diacrisia vir-
Cutworm (Agrotis sp.). ginica).
Cutworm (Feltia annera). Pyralid (Tholeria reversalis).
Noctuid moth (Noctuida). Purslane sphinx (Deilephila gallii).
Cotton worm (Alabama argillacea). Southern tobacco worm (Phlegethon-
Cotton bollworm (Heliothis obsoleta). tius serta).
Striped garden caterpillar (Janestra Caterpillar (Junonia cenia).
legitima). Pupa (Vanessa sp.).
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMAL Foop.
Insects of several orders not previously mentioned make up 0.70
per cent of the food of the bobwhite. They include hymenopterous
insects, such as ants (Las/us sp., Tetramorium cspitum, Camponotus
pennsylvanicus) 3 gall flies (Cynipide), which produce bladderlike
growths on plants; in rare instances parasitic wasps (Ziphia inor-
nata and Proctotrypes ruff pes) ; crane flies, May flies, and sometimes
true flies, like the green fly (Luciliu cewsur) and the robber fly
(Asilidw). The animal food of the bird includes other orders
besides insects. The greater part of this is spiders, chiefly ground
spiders, with a few harvest spiders (Phalangidw). The common
thousand leg (/ilus sp.) sometimes contributes to the food, as it
often does to that of many species of song birds. Snails are more
often taken. Among these Pi pu armifera and the pond snail (Suc-
cinea avara) have been identified. The little fresh-water lobster
called crayfish (Cambarus) had furnished the major course for 4
out of 15 birds shot by collectors for 5S. A. Forbes in Illinois.
Manipulation of these biting crustaceans would appear to be difficult
for a bird no larger than bobwhite. The queerest food eaten is the
toad. B. H. Warren reported Florida birds as feeding on small
batrachians (probably young toads), and laboratory examination of
¥lorida birds showed in one case a tiny toad. It is fortunate that
this habit of bobwhite is not general, since the toad is useful and
destroys great numbers of insects.
Foop oF THE YOUNG.
During the breeding season a third of the food of adult bobwhites
consists of insects. while their young, like those of practically all other
land birds, consume a much greater proportion of insect food than
46 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
do their parents. At Marshall Hall, July 24, 19 droppings collected
from two broods of downy chicks—one but a few hours out of the
shell and the other probably several days old—consisted wholly of
the remains of insects. Their fragmentary condition made the spe-
cies almost unrecognizable, but the following were identified :
Minute green leaf-eating beetles Weevils (Rhynchophora).
(Chrysomclida), at least two spe- Grasshopper (Acridida).
cies. Caterpillars (Lepidoptera).
Leaf-eating beetle (Colaspis brunnea). Ants (Formicidae).
Small scarabseid beetles (Scarabeide), Stink bug (Huschistus?).
‘two species. Spiders (Arachnida).
Longicorn beetle (Cerambycidw), one Thousand legs (Jilus sp.).
species.
Ground beetles (Carabidae), five spe-
cies.
MASKED BOBWHITE.
(Colinus ridgwayi.)
The masked bobwhite is slightly smaller than the bobwhite of the
Eastern States, and the male differs strikingly, having the chin,
throat, and sides of the head black, and the underside of the body
usually uniform rusty reddish. Since the discovery of the bird little
has been added to our knowledge of its life history beyond some notes
on its distribution, and the fact of its probable extinction within our
borders. It lived on grassy plains covering a limited area in southern
Arizona, south and southwest of Tucson, and ranged into northern
Sonora, Mexico. In regard to the causes leading to the disappearance
of the masked bobwhite, Herbert Brown writes as follows:
The causes leading to the extermination of the Arizona masked bobwhite
(Colinus ridgwayi) are due to the overstocking of the country with cattle,
supplemented by several rainless years. This combination practically stripped
tbe country bare of vegetation. Of their range the Colinws occupied only
certain restricted portions, and when their food and shelter had been trodden
out of existence by thousands of hunger-dying stock, there was nothing left for
poor little bobwhite to do but go out with them. As the conditions in Sonora
were similar to those in Arizona, birds and cattle suffered in common. The
Arizona bobwhite would have thriven well in an agricultural country, in brushy
fence corners, tangled thickets, and weed-covered fields, but such things were
not to be had in their habitat. Unless a few can still be found on the Upper
Santa Cruz we can, in truth, bid them a final good-by.@
Recent information received by the Biological Survey from Sonora
is to the effect that these interesting birds still survive in parts of that
region, and efforts are being made by a game association to obtain
living birds from there to introduce into California. The natural
home of the masked bobwhite, in the hot and arid desert of southern
2 Auk., XXI, p, 218, April, 1904,
MASKED BOBWHITE—CALIFORNIA QUAIL. 47
Arizona and northern Sonora, is sufficient guaranty that the birds
would thrive in cultivated sections anywhere in southern California
and the arid Southwest. It would be deplorable if so handsome and
useful a bird should be allowed to become extinct, and a determined.
effort should be made to introduce it into suitable localities before it is
too late.
Beyond what Herbert Brown has stated we have practically noth-
ing on this bird's habits. He has told us that, like all the birds of the
genus Colinus, the males give the well-known ‘ bobwhite ’ call, and he
translates their rallying note as ‘hoo-we.’ He examined the stom-
achs of three birds. The first contained mustard sced, chaparral ber-
ries, six or eight beetles, and other insects; the second only a single
grasshopper an inch long, and the third contained 20 ants, several
crescent-shaped seeds, and a large number of small, fleshy green
leaves.
It is stated by Bendire that in Sonora Benson found these birds
only in fields where wheat and barley had been grown. Probably
then the bird’s general habits may be safely assumed to be similar to
those of its relative, bobwhite.
CALIFORNIA QUAIL.
(Lophortye californicus.) 4
The California quail is generally dispersed over California below
an altitude of 8,000 feet and extends into southern Oregon and west-
ern Nevada. It has been introduced into Washington and British
Columbia, and efforts to introduce it into the Hawaiian Islands also
have proved very successful, although of late years its numbers
there have been much reduced by the mongoose, by which in time it
is likely to be exterminated. Two geographic forms of the bird are
recognized, a dark form and a light one, but as they do not differ in
habits they are not distinguished in the following account. It is a
beautiful bird with a most pleasing combination of colors and mark-
ings, its head being adorned by a glossy black crest, narrow at the
base and gradually widening into gracefully recurving plumes, and
the markings on the underparts resembling scales. It frequents
brush-covered hillsides, canyons, thickets along water courses and
the borders of roads, as well as vineyards and other cultivated fields.
The nesting time of the species varies considerably according to
locality and conditions. According to E. A. Mearns it nests in March
and April in Ventura County, Cal. Nests containing eggs were found
a This name is used here to cover both the typical California quail (Lophortyxr
californicus) and the paler, more southerly form, called the valley quail (ZL. ec.
vallicola).
48 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
during the last week of May in Tulare County, Cal., by J. E. McLel-
lan. The eggs usually number 12 to 15, and are white or buff with
spots.
These birds take kindly to civilization, and flocks are not rarely
seen in the suburbs of large towns, where they range through the
gardens and orchards. They often nest close to farm buildings, and
W. Otto Emerson states that a pair nested within a rod of his front
door, though nearly every hour people and vehicles were passing
within four feet of the nest.
Instead of spending the night in a circle on the ground, like the
bobwhite, the California quail chooses much safer places and roosts
in bushes or low thickly foliaged trees. This quail is even more con-
fiding than the bobwhite, and frequently comes about farm buildings
to eat with the chickens. It has been known to lay in confinement,
and appears to yield readily to semidomestication.
The valley quail has acquired the interesting habit of posting sen-
tinels when feeding, which is described in detail by John J. Williams.
Mr. Williams observed a flock enter a field and begin to feed, while a
sentinel took his station in a peach tree and scanned the country
round about for danger. Presently he was relieved by a second bird,
who took up a position on a brush pile and a little later was relieved
by a third, who kept guard while the other two fed with the flock.*
Writing in 1891 Clark P. Streator says that about 100,000 are sold
each year in the San Francisco market. It is not a perfect game bird,
for it does not lie well to a dog, and when once flushed has a habit of
running that is exasperating to the sportsman. The best way to hunt
these quail is to keep the dog at heel and to run down the birds. This
is likely to make them take wing and to break up the covey. The
same result may be accomplished also by discharging the gun in the
air. When a covey has been scattered in suitable cover they will lie
well enough to a trained dog to give the hunter considerable sport, °
though it is poor in comparison with that afforded by the bobwhite.
The beauty of this quail, its pleasant call notes, and its confidence in
man make it a favorite, except where it damages the grape crop. In
fall and winter where it is abundant hundreds of birds unite in great
packs. Bendire, writing in 1892, says that within a decade packs of
500 were often found, but that at that time coveys even of 50 were
rare in most places.? In the fall of 1891 they were still very abun-
dant on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, where E. W. Nelson,
of the Biological Survey, records their slaughter by pot hunters.
The hunters stationed themselves behind a brush blind near the one
spring where the birds came to drink. Thousands of them flocked
¢ Condor, vol. 5, pp. 146-148, 1903.
Life Hist. N. Am. Birds [I], p. 24, 1892,
CALIFORNIA QUAIL. 49
thither for water during the day, and by waiting until many birds
were bunched the hunters killed at least a score at each discharge of
the gun. In a week of this butchery 8,400 quails were killed. A
record of 525 birds to four guns in a day in February, 1903, near San
Diego, Cal., shows that birds are still abundant there, though far less
numerous in most places than formerly.*
The California quail, though not a large consumer of insects, is a
useful bird, since weed seeds constitute more than half of its food.
In some regions these birds suffer from the curtailment of their food
supply by droughts, and in the northern part of their range many
are killed by severe winters. Bendire states that during the exces-
sively cold winter of 1887-88, when the mercury dropped to 28°
below zero in the northeastern corner of California, these quail per-
ished in great numbers.”
The California quail might be introduced successfully in many sec-
tions between California and Texas where it does not occur at present.
It already has been introduced into Colorado, where it will be pro-
tected by law at all seasons until 1920. Laws to prevent trapping
and to limit the day’s bag, together with absolute protection in sec-
tions where necessary, should suffice to preserve this beautiful species.
FOOD HABITS.
The general food habits of this quail have been ascertained by the
examination of 601 stomachs, and it proves to be one of the most
largely vegetarian of game birds. The material for investigation
was collected in California, and represents every month of the year
except May. Insects furnished but 2.15 per cent of the food, and
leaves, seeds, and fruit 97.85 per cent.
INSECT AND OTHER ANIMAL Toop.
The 2.15 per cent of animal food eaten by this quail is distributed
as follows: Spiders, 0.03 per cent; beetles, 0.22. per cent; grasshoppers
and crickets, 0.24 per cent; ants and other Hymenoptera, 0.67 per
cent; miscellaneous insects, 0.99 per cent. The beetles are both adults
end larvee, and belong to the following families: Chrysomelide (leaf-
eating beetles), Zenebrionide (darkling beetles), Elateridw (wire-
worms), Carabide (ground beetles), Dermestidw (dermestids), Coe-
cinellide (ladybirds), and snout beetles (suborder Rhynchophora).
The leaf-eating beetles include Diabrotica soror, a western representa-
tive of the destructive twelve-spotted cucumber beetle. Flea beetles
also are eaten, including species of the genus /Zaltica. Among the
@ Recreation, vol. 18, p. 868, 1893.
» Life Hist. N. Am. Birds [I], p. 26, 1892.
50 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
miscellaneous leaf-eating beetles may be mentioned the brilliant Gas-
troideu cesia. Conspicuous among the ground beetles eaten is the
common Agonoderus pallipes, and among the useful predaceous lady-
birds the species Hippodamia convergens. Like the eastern bobwhite,
the California quail feeds on ants of the families Pormicide and
Myrmicide. Sometimes 20 to 35 ants are taken at a meal. Of the
other Hymenoptera, gall insects (Cynipide) and their galls make a
significant proportion. Caterpillars and their pupe are eaten. Cut-
worms (Agrotis), measuring worms (Geometride), sphinx caterpil-
lars (including Deilephila), and the cotton bollworm (Heliothis
obsoleta) make wp the greater part of this food. Like the bobwhite
again, this bird shows a relish for bugs. It eats leaf bugs (Cupside),
bugs of the chinch bug family, such as Lygeus truculentis and L.
bitriangularis, and stink bugs (Pentatomide), assassin bugs (edu-
viide), flat bugs (.lradide), burrower bugs (Crytomenus), leaf hop-
pers (Jassidw), tree hoppers (.embracide), plant lice, and bugs of
the genus Scolops (Fulgoride). The miscellaneous animal matter
taken includes flies (Lucillia cesar), spiders, and snails.
VEGETABLE Foon.
FRUIT.
The vegetable food of this quail amounts to 97.85 per cent of its
diet. The bird has an unsavory reputation among fruit growers,
especially the owners of vineyards. Relative to this subject, Miss
Florence A’ Merriam, writing from San Diego County, Cal., says:
In fact, the quail were so abundant as to be a pest. For several years great
flocks of them came down the canyons to Major Merriam’s vineyard, where they
destroyed annually from twenty to thirty tons of fruit. In one season—July to
October, 1881—one hundred and thirty dozen [1,560] were trapped on his ranch.
The result of this wholesale destruction was manifest when I returned to the
valley in 1894. The birds were then rarely seen on the roads and seldom flushed
in riding about the valley.e ©
When this species becomes superabundant and plays havoc with
crops it is well to remember that it can be so easily checked. W. H.
Osgood, of the Biological Survey, has furnished the writer data on
the frugivorous habits of the quail in central California. In one
vineyard he saw a flock of about a thousand eating zinfandel ‘grapes.
The birds do much damage in September, when the young are molt-
ing and they have collected in packs, as before described.
Walter EK. Bryant, writing of the damage to fruit, offers testimony
on the other side:
In some parts of California there is a strong prejudice against the quail,
owing to alleged damage to the grape. The evidence which I have thus far
gathered shows that the quail do pick at the bunches of grapes, and not alone
u Auk, XITI, p. 116, 1896.
FOOD HABITS. 51
those bunches which are rear or on the ground; but the damage which they
cause seems overestimated. Too often mutilated bunches of grapes are supposed
to be due to the presence of quail in the vineyard; but there are other birds and
mammals, also, which vary their diet with grapes. I have examined a number
of quail’s crops and gizzards without finding the presence of grapes, although
the birds had been shot near and in vineyards. A quail’s crop sent to me
from Los Gatos, by Mr. A. H. Hawley, contained twenty-five small grapes;
others had a few grapes, seeds, and poison-oak berries.¢
In the 601 stomachs of the valley quail examined by the Biological
Survey grapes formed only 0.01 per cent of the annual food. This
small quantity is due, no doubt, to the fact that many of the birds
were shot in regions remote from vineyards and many of them during
the time when grapes were not in fruit. The total proportion of all
kinds of fruit was only 7.60 per cent, an amount so insignificant as to
preclude the idea of serious damage. Where the birds are over-
abundant and the consequent damage great, trapping or advertising
the conditions in sporting papers will probably result in reducing the
numbers to normal. Of the 7.60 per cent of fruit, grapes, as before
stated, contribute 0.01 per cent; plants of the genus RAus, mainly
Rhus diversiloba, 4.74 per cent, and miscellaneous fruit, prunes, and
vaccinium, 2.85 per cent. The maximum quantity of fruit, amount-
ing to 32.40 per cent for the month, was taken in December, after the
grapes had been picked.
GRAIN.
The relations of the California quail to grain are of considerable
economic importance. W. T. Craig, of San Francisco, writes to the
Department of Agriculture: “ I have observed the quail enter a field
of wheat to the number of thousands, and had they not been driven
away they would have destroyed the whole crop.” No other reports
to the Biological Survey show the danger to grain from this quail to
be so serious, but data at hand show that it does more or less damage
to germinating grain. Two quail shot by Walter E. Bryant on a
newly-sown grain field had eaten, respectively, 185 kernels and 210
kernels of barley.”. Barley is important in California, where it is
grown for hay, for grain feed, and for beer making. There is, how-
ever, much volunteer barley, which many species of birds feed on
and thus do good rather than harm. It is probable that quail do
little or no harm to barley at harvest time, and the waste grain that
they subsequently gather in stubble fields has no positive value. Of
the yearly food of the 601 quail examined 6.18 per cent was grain,
divided as follows: Barley, 4.58 per cent; wheat, 0.44 per cent;
corn and oats, 1.16 per cent.
a Zoe, IV, p. 56, 1893. b Zoe, IV, p. 55, 1898.
52 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
LEAVES.
In its habit of feeding on foliage the California quail differs from
the bobwhite and resembles the ruffed grouse. Such food forms 22.73
per cent of the vegetable matter eaten. In February, when the bob-
white is weathering blizzards, the California quail is enjoying balmy
weather and feeding on browse to the extent of 80 per cent of its food.
Most of this browse consists of leaves of leguminous plants, princi-
pally clovers. Bur clover (d/edicago denticulata), a weed that
grows in cultivated land and along irrigation ditches, appears to sup-
ply most of the forage. Alfalfa and clovers of the genus alfalfa
form most of the remaining leguminous green food. Next to legumes
the finely divided leaves of alfilaria, or ‘ filaree’ (Hrodium), are im-
portant. Grass, chickweed (Alsine media), the leaves of fern,
geranium, oxalis, and groundsel-bush (Baccharis) also furnish forage
for the quail. W. W. Cooke reports that near Grand Junction,
Colo., where the California coast quail has been introduced and
thrives wonderfully, market gardeners regard it as a nuisance.4
WEED SEEDS.
Different seeds, largely of weeds, furnish the California quail 59.77
per cent of its year’s diet. Legumes contribute 17.87 per cent; alfi-
laria, 13.38 per cent; composite, 5.55 per cent; the spurge family
(Euphorbiacee), 5.85 per cent, and miscellaneous plants 17.12 per
cent. Leguminous seeds are liked best by the bird, and make up
17.87 per cent of the seed diet for the year and 46.1 per cent of its
food for June. Bur clover yields abundance of seeds as well as
forage. Its seed pod is peculiar, much elongated, beset with long,
sharp spines, and spirally coiled into a roundish bur. The quail
swallows it whole, regardless of spines. This food is highly nutri-
tious and is relished by stock as well as by birds and wild mammals.
Seeds of closely allied plants, such as alfalfa, vetch, cassias, culti-
vated beans and peas, and clovers of the genera Trifolium, Lespedeza,
and Melilotus also are in the quail’s list, as well as of locust (obinia)
and lupines, the latter taken in large quantities. They include the
seeds of Lupinus nanus, L. micranthus, and L. sparsiftorus. Other
leguminous seeds are eaten in great numbers, including a small bean-
like seed, Lotus glaber, which looks much like a miniature Frankfurt
sausage, and an unidentified, almost microscopic square seed, with a
notch in its edge, possibly some species of birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus).
Nearly all of the leguminous plants that furnish the quail with seeds
belong in the category of weeds.
Seeds of weeds from other families of plants make up no less than
¢ Birds of Colorado, App. 2, p. 202, 1900.
f
FOOD HABITS. 53
41.89 per cent of the annual food. Seeds of composite yield 5.55
per cent, such injurious weeds as thistles making up the largest part
of this percentage. The thistles most often eaten are Centaurea meli-
tensis, C. americana, C. solstitialis, Ma-
riana mariniana, Sonchus sp., and Car-
duus sp. AM. mariniana has the largest ‘
seeds. Ninety of these had been eatenby & w
a quail shot by F. E. L. Beal at Hay-
»
wards, Cal., August 15, 1903. The seeds _
of the bur thistle (Centaurea melitensis) =
are smaller and have a hook at one end -
and a set of spines like a paint brush at
the other. They are, perhaps, most liked Fie. 4.—Seed of mayweed (Anthe-
of all composite seeds. From 500 to 800 = ™# cotula). (From Bull. 38, Ne
vada Agricultural Experiment
are often eaten ata meal. The destruc- station.)
tion of this seed is highly beneficial,
for the bur thistle is troublesome to farmers.
Wild carrot (Daucus carota), tar weed (JI/adia
sativa), wild lettuce (Lactuca sp.), mayweed
(Anthemis cotula), and marsh elder (Iva wanthi-
folia) furnish most of the remaining seeds of
composite plants. Tar weed is a favorite source of
food, and one stomach, collected at Watsonville,
Cal., by J. S. Hunter, contained 700 of these seeds.
Another stomach, from the same place, held 2,000
tiny seeds of dog fennel, or mayweed. (Fig. 4.)
re Ge From seeds of plants belonging to the spurge
cutarium). (From Lamily (E'uwphorbiacew) come 5.85 per cent of the
ae eg annual food. Spurges, particularly Croton setige-
periment Station.) 7%, commonly known as turkey mullein, are a staple
with the California quail as with most other seed-
eating birds. So fond are the quail of turkey
mullein that their crops are often completely 2% &@
distended with the seeds, sometimes from 500 oe
to 900 toa bird. Turkey mullein isa prostrate 9% 6
plant covered with a whitish, woolly pubes- © 6
cence, and often used by the Indians to poison 2
fish. Seeds of alfilaria (Hrodium cicutariwm Fic. 6—Seed of black mus-
and other species), which is both a weed and a ee oo
forage plant, are eagerly sought. They are Agricultural Experiment
lance-shaped, furnished with a long, elaborate, S*%°??
corkscrew awn ending in a thin spine. They burrow into sheep’s
wool and even pierce the skin. The alfilaria is one of the few seeds
of the West that all seed-eating birds consume, The plant is very
54 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
abundant in California, and the quail often eats from 1,000 to 1,600
of the little corkscrew seeds at a meal. It affords 13.38 per cent of
the year’s food,.and 26.70 per cent-of the June diet. (Fig. 5.)
Seeds of miscellaneous weeds comprise 17.11 per cent of the annual
food. Among the species, included are pigweed (Chenopodium al-
»*
Fi. 7.--Seed of chickweed (Alsine media). (From Bull. 47, Nevada Agricultural Ix.
periment Station.)
bum), rough pigweed (Amaranthus retroflenus), and black mustard
(Brassica nigra) (fig. 6)—especially obnoxious in grain fields—and-
the closely related weed, wild radish (Raphanus sativus). Seeds of
shepherd’s purse (Bursa bursa-pastoris) and of other cruciferous
0 Vr @
Fic. 8.—Seed of Geranium disscctum. (From Bull. 47, Nevada Agricultural Experiment
Station.)
plants are included in common with silene and the chickweeds (Ceras-
tium sp. and Alsine media) (fig. 7). Geranium seeds (fig. 8)
are so much relished that often 300 or 400 are eaten at a time. Two
closely related plants, miner’s lettuce (J/ontia perfoliata) and red
Fic. 9.—Seed of sorrel (Rumcuv ucetosella). (From Bull. 47, Nevada Agricultural Ex-
periment Station.)
maids (Calandrinia menziesiz), bear minute shiny black seeds that
often are eaten by the thousand. The little seeds of red sorrel (Ru-
mex acetosella) (fig. 9) and curled dock (Rumew crispus) are occa-
sionally taken in almost as large numbers. Seeds of chess (Bromus
FOOD HABITS. E 55
secalinus (fig. 10) and Bromus hordeaceus) , a serious grain pest,
are relished, and hundreds of the grain-like seeds of the grass known
as ‘poison darnel’ (Lolium temulentum ) appear in crops examined,
Macoun, quoting Spreadborough, states that in British Columbia,
where it winters successfully, the quail finds shelter in severe weather
under the broom (Cytisus seoparius), which in places grows abun-
dantly and vields seed for subsistence.¢
The quail feeds also at times on mast. A. K. Fisher, in the western
foothills of the Sierra Nevada. the last of July found both young
and adult quail eating young acorns.? Small quantities of sedge
seeds (Curex and Scirpus) and of dodder (Cuseuta) are eaten, the
latter plant being a destructive parasite on leguminous forage crops.
The miscellaneous seed list includes also stick seeds (Lappula sp.),
buttercup (Ranunculus sp.). bind weed (Convoleulus sp.), Am-
sackia sp., Anagallis arvensis, plaintain (Plantago major), ribgrass
(Plantago lanceolata), painted cup (Castilleja sp.), mountain lilac
Fic. 10.—Seed of chess (Bromus secalinus). (From Bull. 47, Nevada Agricultural Ex-
periment Station.)
(Ceanothus sp.), and black wattle (Callicoma serratifolia). In the
mountains of Lower California the food supply determines the breed-
ing time of birds. If there is not enough rain for a good supply of
seeds the coveys of quail do not break up into nesting pairs but remain
in coveys throughout the summer. If the season is wet and the winter
rains promise abundant food the birds mate in March and begin nest-
ing immediately.°
Foop oF THE YOUNG.
The food of young birds differs from that of the parents, as has
already been remarked of the bobwhite, but the difference is less
marked with the California quail. Stomachs of 32 young of the
western birds, from one-fourth to one-half grown, have been exam-
ined. They were collected from the middle of July to the middle of
September. The food was composed of 3.4 per cent animal matter
aCat. Can. Birds, Part I, p. 198, 1900.
ON. A. Fauna, No. 7, p. 28, 1893.
¢ Life Hist. N. A. Birds [I], p. 27, 1892.
56 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
and 96.6 per cent vegetable matter. Thirty-nine adult birds shot in
the same period had eaten almost entirely vegetable food, since only
0.6 per cent of animal food appeared in analysis. Had the young
birds been collected when newly hatched, undoubtedly a larger pro-
portion of insect food would have been found. The 3.4 per cent of
insect food mentioned consisted of beetles, 0.1 per cent; bugs, 0.2 per
cent; grasshoppers, 1.3 per cent, and ants, 1.8 per cent.
The vegetable food of the young is much like that of the adult.
In this case it consisted of leguminous seeds, 18.1 per cent; alfilaria
seeds, 18.5 per cent; miscellaneous seeds, 54.4 per cent; browse, 6.6
per cent; grain, 0.6 per cent, and miscellaneous vegetable matter, 0.4
per cent.
GAMBEL QUAIL.
(Lophortyx gambeli.)
(PLATE I1.]
The Gambel quail in general appearance is much like the valley
quail, but, among other differences, lacks the scalelike feathers of the
lower parts and has considerable chestnut along the flanks. It lives in
the Lower Sonoran zone, from western Texas to southeastern Cali-
fornia and from southern Utah and Nevada south through central
Sonora, Mexico. The desert is its home, but it is rarely found far
from water. Its favorite haunts are patches of bushy vegetation, such
as mesquite, mimosa, creosote, and patches of prickly pear. It fre-
quently takes up its abode about cultivated land, living in alfalfa
fields or nesting in vineyards.
An interesting account of the habits of the Gambel quail in the
Pahrump Valley, Nevada, is given by E. W. Nelson:
I noticed that when a flock of quail came to feed on grain left by the horses
an old male usually mounted the top of a tall bush close by and remained on
guard for ten or fifteen minutes; then, if everything was quiet, he would fly
down among his companions. At the first alarm the flock would take to the
bushes, running swiftly, or flying when hard pressed. They roosted in the
dense bunches of willows and cottonwoods growing along the ditches. * * ©¢
When feeding they have a series of low clucking and cooing notes which are
kept up almost continually.¢
The love note, according to Coues, may be represented in words as
‘killink, killink.’ Nesting takes place in April, sometimes not till
May. About a dozen eggs usually constitute a clutch. In sections
where this quail is still numerous the birds pack in bands of from 100
to 500 after the breeding season.
From the sportsman’s point of view the Gambel quail as a game
bird does not approach the bobwhite. It will sometimes lie to a dog
aN. A. Fauna, No. 7, pp. 29, 30, 1893.
Bull. 21, Biologica
vey, U S. Dept. of Agriculture PLATE Il.
GAMBEL QUAIL (LOPHORTYX GAMBELI).
GAMBEL QUAIL. 57
fairly well, but as a rule it takes to its legs with all haste and leaves
the dog on point, to the vexation of the hunter. It is, however, a
useful species, which brightens the desert with its presence and con-
tributes a welcome addition to the fare of the traveler. While less
valuable than the bobwhite as a destroyer of noxious insects and as
an object of sport, this bird well deserves protection for its food
value and its beauty. It thrives under desert conditions and might
be successfully introduced in the arid regions of Colorado, New
fexico, and Texas.
FOOD HABITS.
Stomachs of 28 birds collected mainly in Arizona and Utah, from
January to June, have been examined. Only 0.48 per cent of the
food consisted of insects; the remaining 99.52 per cent was vegetable
matter. Like the valley quail, this is one of our least insectivorous
birds. Its insect diet includes ants, beetles, grasshoppers, leaf hop-
pers (Membracide), and stink bugs (Pentatomidw). Among the
beetles are the western twelve-spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica
soror) and D. tenella. The young chicks, however, will doubtless
be found highly insectivorous and therefore useful.
The vegetable food of Gambel quail was made up as follows:
Grain, 3.89 per cent, miscellaneous seeds, 31.89 per cent, and leaves
and plant shoots, 63.74 per cent. From the present investigation
the bird appears less frugivorous than any of the other American
quails, for not one of the 28 stomachs contained fruit. Observers,
however, say that the bird is somewhat frugivorous, and no doubt in
a country well stocked with berries and fruit it would rapidly
develop a frugivorous taste. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, for
instance, state that during summer it makes its home in patches of
Solanum and feeds on the tolerably palatable fruit, and also that it is
known to eat gooseberries.‘ Coues says: “In the fall it gathers
cherries and grapes. * * * It visits patches of prickly pear
(Opuntia) to feed upon the soft juicy ‘Tunas’ that are eaten by
everything in Arizona, from men and bears to beetles.” ?
The grain eaten by the Gambel quail was corn, wheat, and oats.
In flocks numbering from 50 to 100, it feeds about grain stacks with
domestic poultry. It is even more industrious as a browser on foliage
than the valley quail. Succulent foliage and shoots form 63.74 per
cent of its food. Much of this comes from alfalfa, bur clover, and
the foliage of other legumes. Vernon Bailey, of the Biological Sur-
vey, says that at St. Thomas, Ariz., in January, 1889, this quail fairly
swarmed on alfalfa fields, feeding on the green leaves and pods.
He found flocks of from 25 to 50 in such situations, and during a
4 Birds of Northwest, p. 434, 1874. > Hist. N. Am. Birds, III, p. 483, 1874.
58 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
five minutes’ walk often saw a hundred birds. The same observer,
when in Mohave County, Ariz., found that the bird fed principally
on juicy plants when it could not procure water. At times it eats
grass and its inflorescence, and it has been known to devour showy
flowers. In spring it shows a fondness for buds. Baird, Brewer,
and Ridgway note that then it feeds largely on the, willow buds,
which impart to its flesh a distinctly bitter taste.
The seed-eating habits of Gambel quail closely resemble those of
the valley quail. Leguminous plants furnish the largest part of the
seed food—21.17 per cent of the annual diet—alfalfa, bur clover, and
kindred plants appearing to be preferred, but cassias, acacias, and
lupines also are taken, as well as the.beans of the mesquite, which in
many places are a staple with birds and mammals. The seeds of
alfilaria (Hrodium cicutarium), another bird staple, furnish 2.28
per cent of the year’s food. Miscellaneous seeds form 8.44 per cent.
They are obtained from grasses, mallows (d/alva), and such crucif-
erous plants as mustard (Brassica) and peppergrass (Lepidium) ;
also from chickweed (Cerastiim) and -Ltriplea.
MOUNTAIN QUAIL.
(Oreortyx pictus.>)
The mountain quail occurs in the forested mountains of the humid
Transition Zone of the Pacific coast, from Santa Barbara, Cal., to
Washington, and in the mountains of the more arid Transition Zone
on the west side of the Cascades in northern Oregeon and south over
the Sierra Nevada to northern Lower California. The birds of the
Sierra Nevada winter at lower altitudes than they nest, but those of
the coast mountains do not make this vertical migration. This
species is the largest and among the handsomest of American quail,
with two long jet-black crest plumes and rich chestnut throat and
flanks, the latter broadly banded transversely with spotless white.
The nests of the mountain quail are placed on the ground and usu-
ally contain 10 to 12 eggs, which vary from pale-cream color to a
much darker due. At Tillamook, Oreg., June 30 and July 4, 1897,
A. K. Fisher found newly hatched chicks; and at Donner, Cal., July
11 and 19, at an altitude ranging from 6,100 to 8,000 feet, Vernon
Bailey found nine broods, varying in age from newly hatched chicks
to half-grown birds. Bendire, quoting L. W. Green, of the United
States Fish Commission, says that the earliest date of the nesting of
a Hist. N. Am. Birds, III, p. 485, 1874.
» The name is used here'to cover both the typical dark’ birds of the humid coast
forests (Oreortyx pictus) and the paler one (O. p. plumiferus) of the more arid
Transition Zone in the Sierras and Cascades.
MOUNTAIN QUAIL. 59
the plumed mountain quail (Oveortyx p. plumiferus) known to him
was April 15, and the latest, August 15. He states also that the
cock bird takes care of the young.t Chester Barlow, in writing of
the habits of the mountain quail, says that at Fyffe, Cal., it begins
to nest the last of May or early in June. All nests that he found
were built in a growth of ‘mountain misery’ (Cham«batia sp. ) 8 to
10 inches high.’ On Mount Tallac and the higher slopes of Pyra-
mid Peak, W. W. Price found newly hatched young as late as August
15. He noted that by September 1 the quail became restless and soon
began their peculiar migration from the east slope to the west slope
of the Sierras. From 4 to 6 adults with their young form a small
band of from 10 to 30 individuals, and pursue their way almost
wholly on foot to a more congenial winter climate; and by October
1 all had abandoned elevations above 5,000 feet. In spring they
migrate back singly or in pairs.¢
There are many admirers of this bird because of its exquisite
plumage, but most sportsmen prefer a game bird that lies better to
the dog. Its flesh is excellent, and the bird sells well in the market.
H. W. Henshaw reports that in the late fall of 1880 he found the
markets of Portland, Oreg., well supplied with live mountain quails
which had been trapped in the neighboring mountains, cooped, and
sent to the city for sale. Nowhere is it so numerous as the California
quail, or the bobwhite in the Southern States, and it is more of a
forest-loving species than any other American quail. The mountain
quail sometimes enters cleared fields, but so far as the records of the
Biological Survey show it does no appreciable damage to cultivated
fruits or other crops and it is a useful destroyer of weed seeds.
FOOD: HABITS.
No stomachs of the mountain quail of the humid regions were
available for examination, but Sandys writes that the bird feeds on
insects and various seeds, including grain,? and Elliot says it some-
times approaches farm buildings in search of scattered kernels of
grain.¢
The food of the mountain quail of the arid regions has been
studied in the laboratory of the Biological Survey. The stomachs
examined, 23 in number, were collected in California. Five were
_collected in January, 2 in May, 6 in June, 3 in July, 3 in August, and
aLife Hist. N. Am. Birds [I], p. 16, 1892.
b Condor, 3, p. 158, 1901.
¢ Condor, 3, pp. 158, 160, 1901.
@Upland Game Birds, p. 93, 1902.
éGallinaceous Game Birds N. A., p. 42, 1897.
60 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
6 in November. The food consisted of animal matter, 3 per cent, and
vegetable matter, 97 per cent. The animal food was made up of
grasshoppers, 0.05 per cent; beetles, 0.23 per cent; miscellaneous
insects, including ants and lepidopterous pups, 1.90 per cent; and
centipedes and harvest spiders (Phalangide), 0.82 per cent. Among
the beetles was a species of the firefly family (Zampyridw), a ground
beetle (Carabide), and a leaf beetle (Haltica sp.). Vernon Bailey
informs the writer that the young eat many ants. The vegetable
food consisted of grain, 18.20 per cent; seeds, practically all of weeds
or other worthless plants, 46.61 per cent; fruit, 8.11 per cent; and
miscellaneous vegetable matter, 24.08 per cent. The grain included
wheat, corn, barley, and oats. Of the seed element the seeds of
grasses formed 7.78 per cent; of legumes, 10.41 per cent; of weeds of
the family HL'uphorbiacew, 3.16 per cent; of alfilaria (Hrodium
cicutarium), 2.76 per cent; and of miscellaneous weeds, 22.50 per
cent. The legume seeds include seeds of alfalfa, cassia, bush clover,
vetch, and lupine. The miscellaneous seeds come from wild carrot
(Daucus carota), tar weed (Madia sativa), Collomia sp., Amsinchia
sp., labiate plants, dwarf oak, snowbush (Ceanothus cordulatus), and
thistle.
Concerning the feeding habits of mountain quail of the dry coun-
try (O. p. plumiferus), J. E. McClellan says: * Their feeding hours
are early in the morning and just before sundown in the evening,
when they go to roost in the thick tops of the scrub live oaks. Their
feeding habits are similar to those of the domestic hen. They are
vigorous scratchers, and will jump a foot or more from the ground to
nip off leaves.”* This bird is especially fond of the leaves of clover
and other leguminous plants. It feeds also on flowers, being known
to select those of Composite and blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium).
Flowers, leaves, buds, and other kinds of vegetable matter form the
24.08 per cent marked miscellaneous. The birds probably eat more
fruit than these stomach examinations indicate. Lyman Belding
says that this quail feeds on service berries, and that during certain
seasons it lives almost entirely on grass bulbs (Aelica bulbosa) , which
it gets by scratching, for which its large, powerful feet are well
adapted. The fruit in its bill of fare includes gooseberries, service
berries (Amelanchier alnifolia), and grapes (Vitis californica).
The bird is probably fond also of manzanita berries, for it is often
seen among these shrubs.
@MS. Records, Biological Survey.
SCALED QUAIL. 61
SCALED QUAIL.
(Callipepla squamata.)
The ‘cotton top,’ or scaled quail, as it is commonly known, is
bluish gray on the back, with black-edged feathers on the under parts,
which appear like large scales. Its conspicuous white-tipped crest
has given it the local name of cotton top. It is found in southern
Colorado and in the Upper and Lower Sonoran zones from Arizona
to western and southern Texas and south to the Valley of Mexico.
The birds of the lower Rio Grande region are darker than those far-
ther west. According to Bendire, this quail lives on open arid plains
overgrown with yucca, cactus, and sagebrush, and often gathers in
coveys numbering 25 to 80. It lays about a dozen eggs, and he be-
eves that two or three broods are reared ina season. The cock assists
in the care of the young, but not in incubation.®
FOOD HABITS.
The food habits of this game bird are of especial interest. Stom-
achs and crops of 47 specimens have been examined, most of which
came from New Mexico, the others from Arizona and Texas. They
were collected as follows: January, 7; May, 1; June, 2; July, 3;
September, 13; October, 19, and November, 2. As with all other
gallinaceous birds, more or less mineral matter is swallowed, usually
small pieces of quartz. The food consisted of animal matter, 29.6
per cent, and vegetable matter, 70.4 per cent.
The food of the cotton top differs from that of all other American
quails in that it contains a large proportion of insects. These com-
prise no less than 29.03 per cent of its food, a percentage almost. twice
as great as that of the bobwhite, although if more stomachs of the
present species had been available for examination the ratio might
have been different. However, the important fact is established that
this bird is a large consumer of insects, instead of being, like most
other western quail, practically graminivorous. Of the insect. food,
grasshoppers comprise 15.86 per cent; beetles, 10.43 per cent, and mis-
cellaneous insects, largely ants, 3.27 per cent. A few spiders also are
taken, but they constitute only 0.03 per cent of the food for the year.
The beetles are in the larval as well as the adult forms. The family
of ground beetles (Carabidw), a favorite one with terrestrial birds, is
well represented. A single beetle with a featherlike antenna, of the
family Pyrochroidw, had been eaten. Some longicorn beetles and
plant-eating scarabeid beetles also were eaten. A bird collected in
4 The name of the species is used here to include both the typical scaled quail
(Callipepla squamata) and the more restricted chestnut-bellied quail of south-
ern Texas (C. 8. castanogastris).
> Life Hist, N, A, Birds [1], pp. 18-20, 1892.
cae
62 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
June had consumed 44 of the latter beetles, which were leaf chafers,
apparently closely related to the genus Serica. The scaled quail
destroys also weevils, such as the clover weevil, Sitones, and certain
species of the family Otcorhynchide, or scarred snout beetles. It
takes also leaf beetles, the very injurious twelve-spotted cucumber
beetle (Diabrotica 12-punctata). Further studies of the beetle food
undoubtedly will disclose a large number of pests. The bird will
probably be found to be a useful consumer also of grasshoppers,
since a third of its September food consisted of them. Their remains
were so fragmentary, however, that identification of species was un-
satisfactory. In one case a member of the genus 7’rimerotropis was
recognized. Ants had been eaten by 15 of the 47 birds examined.
The other miscellaneous insects included small bugs (Heteroptera)
and the chrysalis of a fly. One of the queerest objects found by the
writer in birds’ stomachs is the ‘ ground pearl’ (M/argarodes), sev-
eral hundred of which were contained in the stomach of a cotton top
shot at Roswell, N. Mex., June 17, 1899. They are lustrous and look
like pearls, but are merely scale insects that feed on the roots of
plants.
Vegetable matter furnished 70 per cent of the food of the scaled
quail. Grain contributed 0.57 per cent; seeds, mostly weed seeds,
52.85 per cent; fruit, 12.65 per cent, and leaves and other green tissue,
4.33 per cent. The species resembles the ruffed grouse in its habit of
feeding on green leaves and tender shoots. It feeds upon budded
twigs, but more often limits its choice to chlorophyll-bearing tissue,
often picking green seed pods of various plants. Like domestic
fowls, it eats grass blades. Fruit was eaten by only 6 of the 47 birds,
and none was taken from cultivated varieties. As might be expected
from inhabitants of arid plains, these birds like the fruit of cacti,
and have been found feeding on the prickly pear (Opuntia lind-
heimeri). The fruit of Jbervillea lindheimeri also is eaten. The
blue berries of Adelia angustifolia, which furnish many desert birds
and mammals with food, are often eaten by the scaled quail. Differ-
ent kinds of Rubus fruits are relished, and the berries of Koeberlinia
spinosa and Momisia pallida also are eaten. The fruit and succulent
parts of plants no doubt serve in part in the parched desert as a sub-
stitute for water.
Seeds of various plants form a little more than half of the food.
Legumes furnish 21.84 per cent, the mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), a
staple with both man and beast, being utilized, as are the seeds of
mimosa (J/. biuncifera), besides various cassias and lupines. Seeds
of vetch (Vicia sp.) are a favorite food, and Morongia roemeriana is
eaten. The bird likes seeds of Afedicago, and at times will eat clover
seeds. Miscellaneous weed seeds yield 31.01 per cent of the annual
food. Nearly half of these are seeds of bindweed (Convolvulus sp.),
MEARNS QUAIL. 63
an abundant and troublesome weed in the South, where it often throt-
tles other plants. The following miscellaneous seeds were found
among their food :
Thistle (Carduus sp.). Borage (Amsinckia sp.).
Wild sunflower (Helianthus annuus). Mallow (Malva rotundifolia).
Coreopsis (Coreopsis coronaria). Turkey mullein (Croton setigerus).
Aster (Aster sp.). Croton (Croton texrensis),
Chamomile (Anthemis sp.). Alfilaria (Hrodium cicutarium).
Pigweed (Amaranthus sp.). Spurge (Huphorbia sp.).
Gromwell (Lithospermum sp.).
Grass seeds have not yet been found in quantity in the crop of the
species, but panicum seeds have been recognized.
In summing up the economic status of the scaled quail it should be
noted that although the bird is a desert species, it comes into more or
less direct relation with agriculture, sometimes feeding upon culti-
vated land and about farm buildings. Moreover, half of its food
consists of the seeds of weeds. Lastly, it is highly insectivorous,
fully one-fourth of its food consisting of insects.
MEARNS QUAIL.
(Cyrtonyx montezume mearnsi.e)
The pervading colors of the male Mearns quail are black, white,
and chestnut. Its thick speckles of white and its peculiar shape sug-
gest a miniature guinea hen. The species is found on the table-lands
of Mexico from the City of Mexico north to western Texas, New Mex-
ico, and Arizona, but the bird considered here is limited to the
northern part of this range.
It is a confiding bird and either from excess of curiosity or from
stupidity has been known to remain on the ground to be killed by
a stick. From this lack of suspicion it has received the name ‘ fool
quail.’ It affords the sportsman with a dog much better shooting
than its more erratic crested relatives. Grassy or bushy cover is more
necessary to this bird than to the scaled quail or Gambel quail.
Unlike the latter species, it does not pack, though it is more or less mi-
gratory. Its nesting habits are not well known. Bendire describes a
nest found in Kinney County, Tex., June 22, 1890. It was placed. in
a depression of the ground, and contained 10 eggs.
FOOD HABITS.
The food habits of the Mearns quail are not well known. The
Biological Survey has examined the contents of 9 crops and stom-
@The typical Massena quail (Cyrtonys montezum@) is a bird of the moun-
tains about the Mexican table-land, and gives way to the paler Mearns quail
(Oo. m. mearnsi) in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
64 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES.
achs, secured in Texas and New Mexico during August and November.
Two of the birds were killed in a patch of cactus. They contained
seeds and spines from the prickly pear, acacia, and other seeds, grass
blades, and a trace of insects—weevils and other beetles—hbesides a
large quantity of coarse sand and iron ore. The other 7 birds were
shot in August. Two had their crops filled with the bulbs of a Hly.
The others also had eaten lily bulbs, which in the 5 birds made three-
fourths of the food. The other food was prickly pear fruit, seeds of
legumes and spurges, and such insects as weevils, smooth caterpillars,
hairy caterpillars, bugs, crickets, and grasshoppers. Cassin states
that the contents of the crop of a specimen sent him from Texas by
Captain French “ consisted exclusively of fragments of insects, pro-
nounced by Doctor Leconte to be principally grasshoppers and a
specimen of Spectrum.” * According to. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway,
the Mearns quail appeared quite at home in cultivated fields and
stubble of the ranches.2X. Away from civilization it prefers districts
covered with open forest, with alternate areas of grass and scattered
bushy undergrowth, or hillsides covered with grass and bushes. Its
habits vary considerably with the locality. Bendire records that the
species lives in rocky ravines and arroyos, but quickly adapts itself
to ranch conditions and may be seen running about to gather kernels
of scattered grain. He says also that it is fond of acorns, mountain
laurel, arbutus, cedar, and other berries, and notes that its large,
strong feet are well suited to unearthing the bulbs on which it feeds.
He found holes 2 inches deep which it had dug for this purpose.
These quail often come out into mountain roads to search for scattered
grain and to dust-themselves. As they are readily tamed, they could
doubtless be successfully introduced into other regions.
@T)lustration of Birds of California, Texas, etc., p. 25, 1856.
o Hist. N. Am. Birds, III, p. 492, 1874.
Page
Animal food of bobwhite _____._____________ Sees a ee a i oe 45
Beetles eaten by bobwhite _________________~_____-___-_______ eee 38442
Bobwhite! ewes soe sooo ao Se ee es ee - 9-46
animal food 22 222225. (oie eS sooo bet een oe mes eee Beas 45
as an ally of the farmer___..____________._________-____-_____-_-_- 14
as an articlée-of, food... 22 ccacecec seccesteeceseceoeewesucu Ss 16
as an asset of the farm__-_---__-_--__--_-__-____________-_-----_--_. 15
as an: ObjeCt OL Sport -225 552 2scccsce cette cee eee ee eS 16
breeding Nabts) soe 22 se soe eect ohh ee ie ee ee 11
Call, MOtCS. 225 ace ok ee eee ee eee 10
decrease _____---__-_____-__-_-- Pens DENRA Ted Remi Grenache a A eeam 18
esthetic value 1¢
fOOG Nabits 22.224 2 Ae ee ee eae 276
Penerall Na Dits) Bul. 2, Div, Econ, Ornith., Dept. Agri., p. 105, 1888.
PRAIRIE HEN. 11
may be realized from the fact that in 1902 the supply at from $3 to
$5 a brace nowhere met the demand. Years ago prairie chickens
were shipped east by carloads, but to-day scarcity of birds and a com-
mendable stringency of laws practically preclude shipments.
Many sportsmen declare that there is no better sport than ‘ chicken ’
shooting. The bird unquestionably is one of the noblest of game
birds. Though in speed of flight it by no means equals the ruffed
- grouse or the bobwhite, it furnishes fine sport when hunted with dogs.
Karly in the season, in suitable cover, it lies to a dog like a stone. So
reluctant occasionally is it to fly that it can hardly be put up, and
Professor Cooke informs the writer that several times while hunting
in northern Minnesota he saw a pointing dog jump and catch a three-
fourths grown prairie hen. Late in the fall, however, when gathered
in large packs, they do not lie well.
Early in the season—that is, during the last two weeks of August
and the first part of September—the prairie hen affords a better test
of a dog’s ability to hunt fast and to range out a mile or more from
the gun than does the bobwhite. It is for this reason that field trials
on ‘ chickens’ are always well patronized, and the dogs that win are
highly valued. So highly esteemed is the prairie chicken as the
quarry of ‘racing’ dogs that abundant means for the restocking of
suitable places with the species is likely to be forthcoming from field-
trial patrons. The ideal conditions for ‘ chicken’ shooting are real-
ized in a fenceless country, where it is possible for the hunter to drive,
while the dogs range from a quarter of a mile to a mile away from
the wagon. As soon as they point game the sportsman hurries up
and shoots. The driver ‘marks down’ the birds that escape and
perhaps fly half a mile before alighting. Then the wagon advances
to where they dropped, and shooting is again in order. In some
parts of the country the sport stops at 10 or 11 o’clock in the morning,
because of the intense heat during the middle of the day, when the
birds are resting in places difficult of access, and is not resumed
before 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon.
PRESERVATION AND PROPAGATION.
The prairie hen deserves well of man. It is beneficial to agricul-
ture, is one of the best table delicacies, and its booming call is the
dominant spring note of the plains, as the bird is their most character-
istic resident. Furthermore, the number of entries to the yearly field
trials on ‘chickens’ speak for it as an object of sport. In view of
all the good qualities of the bird, the causes of its diminished numbers
should be sought, and adequate means applied to preserve it from
extinction.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the prairie hen was
12 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
extremely abundant throughout Ohio and Kentucky. It is now rare
in both States. A part of the ground it has lost in the East it has
gained by a westward and northward movement. It has followed
the grain fields of the pioneers of the plains, and with the extension
of grain culture into Minnesota and Manitoba it has become plentiful
there. According to Doctor Hatch, it was by no means common when
the white man first came to Minnesota, and he says that in Illinois as
late as 1836 a hunter was extremely lucky if he could bag a dozen in
a day. Some years later, with much less effort, one could have shot
50 in a day, and there were records of 100 to a single gun.*
The former status of the bird in the East is well indicated by
Audubon’s classic observations at Henderson, Ky., in 1810. Audubon
says:?
In those days during the winter the Grous would enter the farm-yard and
feed with the poultry, alight on the houses, or walk in the very streets of the
villages. I recollect having caught several in a stable at Henderson, where they
had followed some Wild Turkeys. In the course of the same winter, a friend
of mine, who was fond of practicing rifle shooting, killed upwards of forty in one
morning, but picked none of them up, so satiated with Grous was he, as well
as every member of his family. My own servants preferred the fattest flitch
of bacon to their flesh, and not unfrequently laid them aside as unfit for cook-
ing. * * * They could not have been sold at more than one cent apiece.
+ * * So rare have they become in the markets of Philadelphia, New York,
and Boston, that they sell at from five to ten dollars the pair.
So far as the sportsman is concerned, the prairie hen is now extinct
in Kentucky, and nowhere is the royal game bird even approximately
so abundant as it formerly was in that State. There is little good
chicken shooting east of the Mississippi. The best now to be had is
in Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Manitoba. For-
tunately many people are actively interested in the protection and
preservation of the prairie hen and excellent laws in its behalf already
exist. There is a constantly growing sentiment in favor of nonresi-
dent hunting licenses and a legal limit to the day’s bag, while some
States afford the bird absolute protection for a period of years, ° and
their example should be followed wherever it is growing scarce.
The passage of nonexport laws in most of the States has been pro-
ductive of much good. These State laws have been made effective
by a recent Federal law—the Lacey Act—which prohibits interstate
commerce in game killed in violation of local laws. Through its
operation the sale of the prairie hen was virtually stopped in 1902 and
1903 in all the large cities of the East. Absolute enforcement of this
law and successful prohibition of local sales must be effected before
a Birds of Minnesota, p. 163, 1892.
> Ornith. Biog. II, p. 491, 1835.
¢ Illinois, Louisiana, and Oregon protect prairie hens until 1909, and Michigan
and the Province of Ontario until 1910.
PRAIRIE HEN. 138
the safety of the bird is assured. The laws relating to the close
season have been greatly improved, but in some States the open sea-
son (four months in Oklahoma and South Dakota) is still too long.
The preservation of the prairie hen is far more difficult than that of
the bobwhite. The bobwhite is more prolific and does not require so
extensive a range. Moreover, it is swifter of wing and habitually
dives into the woods to escape the hunter. Before the hammerless
gun and the wide-ranging bird dog the grouse of the open prairie falls
an easy victim. It has to contend also with the trapper, besides
predatory birds, reptiles, and mammals. Its most deadly enemy,
however, is the prairie fire in spring, which destroys every nest within
its sweep. E. W. Nelson informs the writer that in the early seventies
in northwestern Illinois the farmers in many places burned the
prairies in spring after the prairie hens nested, and often gathered for
household use large numbers of the eggs thus exposed. Were it pos-
sible for stockmen to burn the grass a little earlier it would result in
the saving of thousands of birds.
The prairie hen has the advantage, however, of yielding more
readily to domestication than the bobwhite, and strong efforts should
be made to establish preserves of domesticated birds for restocking
country where the species is extinct. Successful enterprises of this
kind would be profitable. That such domestication is possible and
even feasible, the appended quotation from Audubon implies: ¢
The Pinnated Grous is easily tamed, and easily kept. It also breeds in con-
finement, and I have often felt surprised that it has not been fairly domesticated.
While at Henderson, I purchased sixty alive, that were expressly caught for me
within twelve miles of that village, and brought in a bag laid across the back
of a horse. I cut the tips of their wings, and turned them loose in a garden
and orchard about four acres in extent. Within a week they became tame
enough to allow me to approach them without their being frightened. * * *
In the course of the winter they became so gentle as to feed from the hand of
my wife, and walked about the garden like so many tame fowls, mingling
occasionally with the domestic poultry. * * * When spring returned they
strutted, ‘ tooted,’ and fought, as if in the wilds where they had received their
birth. Many laid eggs, and a good number of young ones made their appearance.
There is great probability of success in the restocking of much of
the former range of the prairie hen if undertaken in the proper way
and properly sustained by adequate protective laws. Successful
results would materially add to the assets of every farm.
FOOD HABITS.
For the purposes of this report the contents of 71 stomachs of
prairie hens have been examined. Fortunately this material repre-
sents not only the shooting season, but all other months except July.
Most of the stomachs came from the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wis-
¢ Ornith. Biog. II, p. 495, 1835.
14 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
consin, Nebraska, and Texas; Illinois and Ontario furnished the
rest. The food consisted of 14.11 percent animal matter and 85.89
percent vegetable matter. The former was insects; the latter seeds,
fruit, grain, leaves, flowers, and bud twigs.
INsEcT Foop.
The insect food included 12.78 percent of grasshoppers, 0.48 per-
cent of beetles, 0.39 percent of bugs, 0.12 percent of ants and other
Hymenoptera, 0.29 percent of other insects, and 0.05 percent of
spiders. The ruffed grouse takes about one-sixth less and the
bobwhite about one-third more of insects than the prairie hen.
Although the bobwhite destroys-injurious grasshoppers, the relative
proportions of grasshoppers and beetles consumed by it and by the
prairie hen are notably different. In the food of the bobwhite the
grasshoppers are to the beetles as 3.71 to 6.92; with the prairie hen
the ratio stands as 12.78 to 0.48. Indeed, grasshoppers constitute
the bulk of the prairie hen’s animal diet, the reason being probably
that on the prairies the grasshoppers vastly outnumber all other
sizable insects. For a gallinaceous bird the prairie hen is highly
insectivorous from May to October, inclusive, insects constituting
one-third of the fare of the specimens shot during this period. The
species is particularly valuable as an enemy of the Rocky Mountain
locust. During an invasion by this pest in Nebraska, 16 out of 20
grouse killed by Prof. Samuel Aughey from May to October, inclusive,
had eaten 866 locusts—a creditable performance, economically rated.
Some ornithologists believe that the diminution in the number of
prairie hens is in a measure responsible for the ravages of certain
insects. Farmers who know these facts must regret the extinction of
the bird in States where it once thrived, and they may well support
measures for reintroducing and protecting it.
Almost every kind of grasshopper and locust appears to be accept-
able to the prairie hen. In the following list are named the species. of
short-horned grasshoppers identified in its food :
Opomala sp. Schistocerca americana.
Mermiria atacris. Cordillacris occipitalis.
Philibostroma quadrimaculatum. Stenobothrus curtipennis.
Leptysma sp. Melanoplus femur-rubrum.
Psolessa sp. Melanoplus atlanis.
Ageneotettia scudderi. Melanoplus bivittatus.
Spharagemon sp.
The prairie hen eats also long-horned grasshoppers (Xiphidium sp.,
Conocephalus sp., and Orchelimum sp.) and crickets (@ryllus sp.)
and tree crickets (@canthus sp.).
In its beetle diet the prairie hen makes up in variety what it lacks
in quantity. Unlike our common small passerine birds, but like our
other gallinaceous birds, it feeds on the harmful leaf beetles. It
PRAIRIE HEN. 15
destroys also the potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), in both
adult and larval stages, and the injurious 12-spotted cucumber
beetle (Diabrotica 12-punctata). The stomach of a bird collected by
H. P. Attwater, November 7, 1893, in Aransas County, Tex., contained
16 of these latter insects. Among other leaf-eating beetles eaten may
be mentioned Chrysomela pulohra, Chrysomela suturalis, Disonycha
quinguevittata, Monoxia puncticollis, and Graphops pubescens. The
injurious May beetles (Lachnosterna sp.) also are destroyed, as well
as weevils (Thecesternus humeralis and other species). Like many
other birds, the prairie hen is partial to ground beetles. It has been
known to take such kinds as Anisodactylus rusticus, Agonoderus
pallipes, Amara sp., and Chlenius sp. It probably feeds also on the
different abundant species of Harpalus. Wadybirds are at times de-
stroyed, as was attested by remains of Hippodamia convergens con-
tained in one stomach.
Miscellaneous insects are eaten in small numbers, but are inter-
esting because they include a number of the worst insect foes, such as
the cotton worm (Alabama argillacea) ,* the army worm (Heliophila
unipuncta), several species of cutworms, the yellow bear caterpillar
(Diacrisia virginica), cankerworms (Geometride), the Angoumois
grain moth (Sitotroga cerealella), and the chinch bug (Blissus
leucopterus). The bird’s habits of eating chinch bugs has been re-
ported by B. F. Gault, of Chicago, and Prof. F. M. Webster, of
the Bureau of Entomology. Other bugs, including stink bugs (Fus-
chistus sp.) and the tree hoppers (Sttctocephalus sp.) make part of
the food. In addition to ants, such as Formica exsectoides, the prairie
hen occasionally eats other Hymenoptera, including Tiphia inornata
and gall insects contained in the galls of Cynipide. In its liking for
galls and their contents the bird resembles the ruffed grouse and the
British pheasant.
Further study of the food habits of the prairie hen will unquestion-
ably add largely to the foregoing enumeration of insects, but our pres-
ent knowledge, incomplete as it is, shows the general character of its
insect food, and establishes the value of the species as a destroyer of
insect pests.
VEGETABLE Foon.
From October to April, inclusive, the prairie hen takes little but
vegetable food. This element amounts to 85.89 percent for the year.
Fruit constitutes 11.79 percent; leaves, flowers, and shoots, 25.09 per-
cent; seeds, 14.87 percent; grain, 31.06 percent, and miscellaneous
vegetable material, 3.08 percent.
Like the bobwhite and the ruffed grouse, the prairie hen is fond of
rose hips, and the abundant roses of the prairie yield 11.01 percent
¢ Fourth Rep. U. S. Ent. Commission, p. 88, 1885.
16 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
of its food. This fact perhaps may be a useful hint to anyone who
attempts to introduce the bird or to improve its environment. The
other fruit found was of little importance—merely 0.78 percent. It
was made up of domestic cherries, woodbine berries, sumac, poison
ivy, huckleberries, strawberries, partridge berries, mistletoe, wild
grapes, the berries of Solanum and Symphoricarpus, and cornel
(Cornus asperifolia). Of the frugivorous habits of the prairie hen
Audubon writes: 4
In the western country, at the approach of winter, these birds frequent the
tops of the sumach bushes, to feed on their seeds, often in such numbers that I
have seen the bushes bent by their weight.
It is important to note that often when deep snow causes scarcity
of other supplies the sumac affords both the prairie hen and the bob-
white abundant food. As with the insect food, further investigation
undoubtedly will extend the fruit list.
The prairie hen eats a much smaller proportion of seeds, with the
exception of grain, than the bobwhite, and in this respect is less useful
than the latter bird. It is, however, a better weeder than any other
grouse, and its services in this particular are worthy of consideration.
As before stated, seeds make 14.87 percent of the annual diet. Of
these, grass seeds form 1.03 percent; seeds of various polygonums,
8.49 percent, and miscellaneous weed seeds, 5.35 percent. When the
nature of the prairie hen’s habitat is recalled it seems strange that the
percentage of grass seed is so small. The bobwhite, in contrast, takes
9.46 percent of grass seed. Like the bobwhite and other granivorous
birds, the prairie hen often eats the seeds of the various species of
panicums, the paspalums, and pigeon grass (Chetochloa viridis).
The seeds of different polygonums, or smartweeds, play an impor-
tant part in the economy of the prairie hen. They form 8.49 percent
of the food. These plants grow profusely where illy drained regions
of the plains are under water for a few months in the year. Black
bindweed (Polygonum convolvulus) and smartweed (Polygonum
lapathifolium), with the closely related dock (Rumew crispus), are
included in the bill of fare. Of the 5.35 percent of remaining mis-
cellaneous seeds, ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiwfolia) is the most
important element, but is insignificant in amount when compared
with the same element of the bobwhite’s food. Other composite
are eaten by the prairie hen—wild sunflower, coreopsis (Coreopsis
cardaminefolia), and others. The prairie hen has a liking for
legumes, reminding one again of the bobwhite. It selects two of the
latter’s favorites—cassia, and the hog peanut (falcata comosa). It
takes also the seeds of a closely related plant, the prairie mimosa
(Acuan). It has been known to feed on seeds of water willow
(Dianthera sp.), the yellow false garlic (Nothoscordum bivale),
¢Ornith. Biog., II, p.. 501, 1835.
PRAIRIE HEN. 17
blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium graminoides), shepherd’s purse (Bursa
bursa-pastoris), mercury seeds (Acalypha sp.), croton seeds (Croton
sp.), and seeds of purslane (Portulaca oleracea), the seeded pods of
the latter being plucked.
GRAIN.
As a grain eater the prairie hen heads the native gallinaceous
birds. Everybody who has gone ‘chicken’ shooting knows how
closely the bird is associated with stubble fields. The stomachs and
crops examined in the investigation contained 31.06 percent of grain.
The bobwhite, another busy stubble feeder, takes only 17.38 percent.
The stomach of a grouse shot in June in Nebraska contained 100
kernels of corn and 500 grains of wheat. J. A. Loring, formerly of
the Biological Survey, during December in Nebraska found prairie
hens feeding in wheat stubble, about straw stacks, and along the edges
of cornfields. Doctor Hatch, in writing of their granivorous habits,
says: ¢
The grain fields afforded both food and protection for them, until the farmers
complained of them bitterly, but not half so bitterly as they did afterwards of
the bird destroyers who ran over their broad acres of wheat, oats, and corn
in the order of their ripening.
Buckwheat, barley, oats, and millet are relished, but corn appears
to be the favorite cereal, amounting to 19.45 percent of the annual
food. Other grain, principally wheat, was in the ratio of 11.61 per-
cent. Amos W. Butler reports that in Indiana, during September,
fields of ripening buckwheat are favorite feeding grounds.’ There is
reason to believe that sprouting grain is sometimes injured. Audubon
speaks of such injury in Kentucky, where the bird was extremely
abundant.°
Like other gallinaceous birds, the prairie hen likes mast, though
naturally it obtains much less than the ruffed grouse. The stomach
contents showed the beaked hazelnut (Corylus rostrata) and acorns,
including, among others, those of the serub oak (Quercus nana) and
the scarlet oak (@Q. coccinea). Like the ruffed grouse, it swallows
acorns whole. A bird shot in Minnesota in March had bolted 28
scarlet-oak acorns.
LEAVES, FLOWERS, AND SHOOTS.
Like other grouse the prairie hen is an habitual browser, to the
extent of 25.09 percent of its food. This is divided as follows: Twigs
a Birds of Minnesota, p. 163, 1892.
» Ann. Rept. Dept. Geol. Ind., 1897, p. 758.
¢ Ornith. Biog., II, p. 491, 1835.
6568—No. 24—05 mM——3
18 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
or shoots, 0.55 percent; flowers, 9.34 percent, and leaves, 15.20 percent.
This is only half the amount of similar food taken by the ruffed
grouse. Naturally the prairie hen is much less given to budding than
the ruffed grouse, but it has been known to pluck buds of poplar,
elm, pine, apple, dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa), and black birch
(B. lenta). “TI have counted more than 50 on a single apple tree,”
writes Audubon,? “ the buds of which they entirely destroyed in a few
hours. * * * They were, in fact, looked upon with more abhor-
vence than the crows are at present in Massachusetts and Maine, on
account of the mischief they committed among the fruit trees of the
orchards during winter, when they fed on their buds, or while in the
spring months, they picked up the grain in the fields.” This mischief
was due largely to the abundance of the birds, a condition never
likely to return.
The prairie hen shows a marked taste for flowers. A delicate pink
rosebud had been plucked by a bird shot at Omega, Nebr., in June.
More than a thousand golden-rod heads were found in another.
Additional composite flowers devoured were Amphiachyris (Amphia-
chyris dracunculoides), sweet balsam (Gnaphalium obtusifolium),
and others. The flower and leaf buds of birch and apple also are
taken. Small green ovaries of Ruellia and blue-eyed grass were noted
in a few cases. These birds eat leaves, including those of the butter-
cup, everlasting (Antennaria), red and white clover, and the interest-
ing water milfoil (Myriophyllum), often grown in goldfish globes.
Foop oF THE YOUNG.
The economic value of the prairie hen is due mainly to its destruc-
tion of weeds and harmful insects, the latter constituting almost the
sole food of the downy chick. Unfortunately only two stomachs of
young birds were to be had for examination. The chicks were re-
cently hatched Texas prairie hens (7ympanuchus americanus att-
wateri). They had eaten 1 tree cricket, 5 undetermined caterpillars,
1 imago of the very destructive Angoumois grain moth, 1 leaf beetle
{Monoxia puncticollis), and 19 12-spotted cucumber beetles (Déia-
brotica 12-punctata), which do not always confine themselves to
cucumbers, but injure more than a dozen other cultivated plants.
THE HEATH HEN.
(Tympanuchus cupido.)
The heath hen, which, to casual view, appears like a small-sized
prairie hen, inhabits the scrub oaks of the island of Marthas Vine-
yard, on the coast of Massachusetts. It was formerly abundant in
@ Ornith. Biog., II, pp. 491 and 501, 1835.
LESSER PRAIRIE HEN, 19
Connecticut and the eastern parts of New York, New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, and Virginia.
As no stomachs of this now rare bird were to be had for examina-
tion, we must depend on the work of other investigators for knowl-
edge of its food habits. Audubon *¢ quotes David Eckley as follows:
The bayberry, which abounds in many parts of Martha’s Vineyard, is the
principal food of the Grous particularly such as grows on low bushes near the
ground, and is easily reached by the birds. They also feed on the boxberry,
or partridge berry, the highland and lowland cranberry, rosebuds, pine and
alder buds, acorns, ete.
William Brewster in 1890 ascertained that, all told, there were
probably only about 200 heath hens, and that they were confined to
about 40 square miles of the island of Marthas Vineyard. In speak-
ing of their habits, he says: ®
At all seasons the heath hens live almost exciusively in the oak woods,
where the acorns furnish them abundant food, although, like our ruffed grouse,
they occasionally, at early morning and just after sunset, venture out a little
way in the open to pick up scattered grains of corn or to pluck a few clover
leaves, of which they are extremely fond. They also wander to some extent
over the scrub-oak plains, especially when blueberries are ripe and abundant.
In winter, during long-continued snows, they sometimes approach buildings to
feed upon the grain which the farmers throw out to them.
If this bird can be saved from extinction and introduced into many
of the Eastern States, it will be much more likely to succeed, on ac-
count of its woodland habits and narrow range, than the prairie hen,
which requires a more open country and usually does not take refuge
in woods from its enemies. Experiments with the heath hen must be
made soon, however, or it is likely to become extinct.
THE LESSER PRAIRIE HEN.
(Tympanuchus pallidicinctus.)
The lesser prairie hen is a smaller bird than the common species
of the Mississippi Valley and is found from western Texas north
to western Kansas. But little of its life history is known. It
has been found breeding abundantly the first of June at Fort
Cobb, Ind. T., and ‘William Lloyd observed this grouse wintering
in Concho and Tom Green counties, Tex. H. C. Oberholser, of
the Biological Survey, found them common in August, 1901, in
Wheeler County, Tex., where they frequented rolling plains over-
grown with oak brush from 1 to 4 feet high. These oaks are ever-
green, and the prairie hen feeds upon the buds and young shoots.
At the time of Oberholser’s visit the birds were in coveys of from
¢ Ornith. Biog., II, p. 500, 1835.
> Forest and Stream, XXXV, p. 188, 1890.
20 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
15 to 20, but, according to the people of that section, the prairie hens
gather in flocks of hundreds in the late fall. At this season they are
destructive to unthreshed wheat and oats, tearing off the surface of
the stacks. In winter they visit cattle pens and corrals in search of
food. During severe winters they are sometimes so numerous that
they become a nuisance. Some idea may be had of their abundance
during winter from the information secured by Oberholser that one
man shipped 20,000 of them from this section in a single season.
THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE.
(Pediacetes phasianellus.)«
The sharp-tailed grouse is about the same size and has the general
appearance of the prairie hen. Its range is wide, extending from
Lake Michigan to northeastern California, and from northeastern
New Mexico to Alaska. In the northern part of the Mississippi
Valley its range overlaps that of the prairie hen, and mixed flocks are
sometimes seen, but the ‘ spike tail ’ is seldom found in such large num-
bers as that species. It shows also much less adaptability to changed
conditions and disappears more rapidly after the subjection of its
range to agriculture. In regard to its curious courtship, Professor
Macoun writes of the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse: ®
The malés collect in large npumbers on some hill about the end of April or
beginning of May to have their annual dance, which they keep up for a month or
six weeks. It is almost impossible to drive them away from one of their hills
when they are dancing. One day about the middle of May, I shot into a dancing
party, killing two, and wounding another, which flew a short distance. I went
to get it, and before I got back to pick up the dead birds, the others were back
dancing around them.
About a dozen eggs generally make a clutch, and but one brood is
reared in a séason. The eggs vary from buff to olive-brown and are
usually lightly spotted with brown.
From two to three months after hatching, the young are full grown
and afford quite as good if not better sport than the prairie hen.
They lie well to the dog and usually rise with a noisy, clucking cry;
after a short distance the flight changes to an alternation of rapid
vibrations of the wings and gliding or sailing on stiffly outspread
pinions. The flesh of the young, like that of young prairie hens, is
«The sharp-tailed grouse varies in different parts of its range, and has been
divided into two geographic forms in addition to the typical bird. These are the
Columbian sharp-tailed grouse (Pediacetes phasianellus columbianus), occupying
the western part of the bird’s range in the United States, and the prairie sharp-
tailed grouse (Pediecetes phasianellus campestris) which covers the plains east
of the Rocky Mountains.
>» Cat. Can. Birds, pt. 1, p. 212, 1900.
SHARP-TAILED GROUSE: 21
light colored and deliciously flavored. After the birds begin to pack
they afford little sport to the hunter.
The sharp-tailed grouse are partly migratory. In winter they
take refuge in the highest trees, walking among the branches almost
as nimbly as the ruffed grouse. Like the latter, the present species
has a habit of plunging into the snow to spend the wintry night.
It has many natural enemies in the winter, and in summer the golden
eagle has been known to feed its young very largely upon its flesh.
Its struggle for existence is unusually severe. Wherever it abounds,
in accessible districts, it is pursued relentlessly by the sportsman; but
where diminished to a certain point, as on its western and northern
ranges, hunting it is largely abandoned. Probably some decades
will pass, therefore. before it will be in danger of total extinction.
As it does not readily accept civilization, it is not likely to become a
popular bird in our growing game preserves, which each year become
of greater economic importance.
FOOD HABITS.
The food habits of the sharp-tailed grouse have been studied in
connection with the present paper by the examination of 43 stomachs.
These were collected in every month of the year except January and
March; most of them in Nebraska and the Northwest Territories, but
some in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba. The investigations
showed that animal matter (insects) formed only 10.19 per cent of
the food, while vegetable matter (seeds, fruit, and ‘ browse’) made
89.81 percent. If subsequent study proves that these figures apply
generally to the species, the sharp-tailed grouse is to be classed among
the birds most largely vegetarian.
INSECT FOOD.
The insect matter consists of bugs, 0.50 percent; grasshoppers,
4.62 percent; beetles, 2.86 percent, and miscellaneous insects, 2.21
percent in a total of 10.19 percent of the food. Vernon Bailey, of
the Biological Survey, found that three birds shot by him in Idaho
August 29 had eaten chiefly insects, including grasshoppers, small
bugs, and small caterpillars. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway state
that the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse has been known to feed on
caterpillars and other insects that have been scorched by prairie
fires.?
The young of the sharp-tailed grouse, like those of other gallina-
ceous species, are highly insectivorous. A downy chick from 1 to 3
days old, collected on June 27, in Manitoba, by Ernest Thompson
Seton, had eaten 95 percent of insects and 5 percent of wild straw-
aHist. N. A. Birds, Land Birds, III, p. 489, 1874.
22 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
berries. The insect material consisted of a lepidopterous chrysalis
and the remains of beetles and black ants (Camponotus pennsyl-
vanicus). Another young bird, about 8 days old, taken by the same
collector, had been exclusively insectivorous. It had eaten such
beetles as weevils, ground beetles (Harpalus herbivagus), the lady-
bird (Anisosticta seriata), and the click beetle (Dolopius lateralis),
also 2 cutworms, 9 sawfly larvee, such leaf hoppers as Tettegonia sp.
and Helochara communis, and 1 leaf spider. The sharp-tailed grouse
is fond of grasshoppers. Vernon Bailey shot 3 birds at Elk River,
Minn., September 17, 1894, which had eaten, respectively, 7, 23, and
31 grasshoppers. The species is a destroyer also of the Rocky Moun-
tain locust. Of 9 birds collected by Professor Aughey from May to
October, inclusive, 6 had eaten 174 of these pests. The bird eats
also a few crickets and, like other. gallinaceous game birds, devours
the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata). It has been
known to feed on the bugs Oncometopia lateralis and Oncometopia
costalis. The lack of sufficient material to determine exactly the
bird’s relation to insects is to be regretted, but enough is at hand to
demonstrate the fact that its insect food is much like that of its
relatives.
VEGETABLE FOOD.
The vegetable food of the sharp-tailed grouse, so far as ascertained
in the laboratory, comprises weed seeds, 7.39 percent; grain, 20.50
percent; fruit, 27.68 percent; leaves, buds, and flowers, 31.07 percent,
and miscellaneous vegetable food, 3.06 percent; making a total of
89.81 percent. The weed-seed element consists of the seeds of black
bindweed (Polygonum convolvulvs) and other polygonums, wild
sunflower (Helianthus sp.), ragweed (Ambrosia artemisicefolia),
peppergrass (Lepidium), blue-eyed grass, sedge, and catchfly (Silene
antirrhina). The seeds of a number of leguminous plants are eaten,
including those of alfalfa. Like many other game birds, the species
feeds on mast (largely acorns), including acorns of the scarlet oak
(Quercus coccinea). Corn is eaten, but wheat is the favorite grain.
It formed 17.21 percent of the food. A thousand kernels of wheat
were sometimes found in one stomach.
The sharp-tailed grouse is a great browser. It makes 31.07 percent
of its food of leaves, buds, and flowers. Ernest Thompson Seton
found it eating the buds of willow and birch. It feeds on the leaves
of cottonwood, alder, blueberry, juniper, and larch; also leaves of
quillwort (Jsoetes), vetch, dandelion, grass, and rush (Juncus).
Hearne says that in winter it eats the tops of the dwarf birch and the
buds of poplars. Flowers form 19.90 percent of its diet, the species
4 First Rep. U. 8. Entom. Comm., Append. II, p. 47, 1877 (1878).
SAGE GROUSE. 23
leading all other birds in this respect. A half pint of the showy,
bluish blossoms of the pasque flower (Pilsatilla hirsutissima) which
brightens the western prairie are often taken at a meal, and those of
the dandelion also are eaten. Inflorescence of grasses, alder, willow,
maple, and canoe birch are plucked along with leaf buds.
Like the prairie hen and the ruffed grouse, the sharp-tailed grouse
is frugivorous, and fruit forms 27.68 percent of its diet. Hips of
wild rose alone form 17.38 percent. Ernest Thompson Seton, who
examined hundreds of stomachs of the sharp-tailed grouse, says that
he can not recollect an instance in which they did not contain the
stony seeds of the wild rose (2osa blanda [?]).* The Biological Sur-
vey has found rose seeds in many of the stomachs examined, but in
uumerous instances it has recorded their absence. The fruit of both
prairie rose and the sweetbrier (2osa rubiginosa) are eaten. Mr.
Seton states that in places in Manitoba where he has collected dur-
ing the winter, gravel to pulverize the food is not to be had, and the
stony rose seeds act in its stead. Rose hips appear difficult to digest,and,
furthermore, are sometimes thickly set with bristles that would irri-
tate the human stomach, but appear to cause no inconvenience to the
grouse. The persistent bright-colored hips are readily seen above the
snow, and they are a boon to the birds in wintry northern regions,
where the struggle for existence is bitter. Other plants of the rose
family furnish food for the sharp-tailed grouse, such as the thorn
apple (Crategus sp.), the wild strawberry, and the wild black cherry
(Prunus serotina). It feeds on blueberries and cranberries and on the
snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus), various species of manza-
nita, bearberry (Arctostaphylos wva-urst), buffalo berry (Lepargyrea
argentea), juniper berries, huckleberries, and arbutus berries. It
takes also the partridge berry (J/itchella repens), a favorite with the
ruffed grouse. Like many other species, it eats with relish the fruit
of cornel (Cornus stolonifera) and poison ivy (both Rhus radicans
and Rhus diversiloba).
THE SAGE GROUSE.
(Centrocercus urophasianus.)
With the exception of the wild turkey, the sage grouse is our largest
game fowl. It is a fine-looking bird, with gray back, black breast,
and long tail, and attains a maximum weight of 8 pounds. It breeds
on the sagebrush plains of the Upper Sonoran and Transition zones,
from the east slope of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains in
Nevada, California, and British Columbia, east to Assiniboia, Dakota,
Nebraska, and Colorado. At mating time the cock inflates the sacs
aProc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XIII, p. 519, 1890 (1891).
24 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
on the sides of his neck until they look like small oranges, and then
goes through a droll performance, throwing himself forward on his
breast and plowing along the ground until the breast feathers are
almost completely worn away. The hen is captivated by these
grotesque antics, and in due time chooses a mate and nests in a small
depression in the ground under the shelter of a bush, where she lays
about ten olive-buff eggs with chocolate markings. The cock leaves
her before incubation begins, and in about three weeks the chicks are
out. A young covey roosts in a circle on the ground, bobwhite-
fashion. In winter, coveys unite in packs which sometimes number
« hundred or more.
FOOD HABITS.
The feeding habits of the sage grouse are peculiar, and its organs
of digestion are unlike those of other grouse. The stomach is not
differentiated into a powerful grinding gizzard, but is a thin, weak,
membranous bag, resembling the stomach of a raptorial bird. Such
an organ is evidently designed for the digestion of soft food, and we
find that the bulk of the sage grouse’s diet consists of leaves and
tender shoots. A stomach collected September 7, 1890, in Idaho, by
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, contained leaves of sage and other plants,
seeds, and a ladybird beetle (Coccinellidw). Four birds shot in
Wyoming during May and September by Vernon Bailey had gorged
themselves with the leaves of sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).
This and other sages, including A. cana and A. frigida, furnish the
bulk of the food of the sage grouse. Other food is taken, but it is
comparatively insignificant. B. H. Dutcher, formerly of the Bio-
logical Survey, examined a stomach which, besides sagebrush leaves,
contained seeds, flowers, buds of Rhus trilobata, and ants and grass-
hoppers. Three birds collected by Vernon Bailey on September 5,
in Wyoming, had varied their sagebrush fare with ladybird ‘beetles,
ground beetles (Carabidae), fly larve, ants, moths, grasshoppers
(Welanoplus sp.), and the leaves of asters and yarrow. Of two birds
killed in May, one had fed wholly on the leaves of sagebrush (Arte-
mista tridentata), while the other in addition had taken insect galls
from sagebrush and the flowers and flower buds of a phlox (Phlox
douglasti), together with some undetermined seed capsules, pieces of
moss, and several ants. A third bird, killed in July, had eaten a
few plant stems and numerous grasshoppers.
Major Bendire writes that the diet of the sage grouse includes
grass spikes, the tops of leguminous plants, including blossoms and
pods of vetch (Vicia) and astragalus; also, that the bird eats golden-
rod, and will go far to get a morning feed of wheat. He notes that
also berries, grasshoppers, and crickets (Anabrus simplex) are eaten.*
«Life Hist. N. A. Birds, [I], pp. 107-108, 1892.
PLATE Il.
Bull. 24, Bioiogical Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture,
SAGE GROUSE (CENTROCERCUS UROPHASIANUS).
RUFFED GROUSE. 25
Sage grouse have been known to eat rose hips, greasewood leaves, and
the buds and foliage of the pulpy-leaved thorn.¢
The young, of course, are more highly insectivorous than their
parents, A half-grown bird shot by Vernon Bailey had eaten, in
addition to vegetable food, some 300 ants.
Much remains to be learned about the diet of the sage grouse,
but enough is known to show that the bird lives principally on sage-
brush, and does no harm to agriculture. The value of the flesh as
food has been much discussed, but the general opinion is that when
the birds have not been feeding much upon sage the flesh is excellent.
A long-continued diet of sagebrush imparts to it a bitter, sagy
flavor. Hon. Theodore Roosevelt says:?
However, I killed plenty of prairie chickens and sage hens for the pot, and
as the sage hens were still feeding largely upon crickets and grasshoppers,
and not exclusively on sage, they were just as good eating as the prairie
chickens.
Sage grouse should be drawn as soon as they are killed, to prevent
the food in the stomach and intestines from tainting the flesh. The
sage grouse is of very gentle disposition, and probably would thrive
in captivity. Should it be domesticated, its size would make it a
most valuable fowl. E. 8. Cameron, of Terry, Mont., writes to the
Biological Survey that he has made a beginning in this direction.
He secured eggs of the sage grouse, hatched them under a domestic
hen, and some of the chicks survived.
THE RUFFED GROUSE.
(Bonasa umbellus.)¢
The ruffed grouse is widely distributed over the wooded parts of
the United States and Canada, and ranges from northern Georgia,
Mississippi, and Arkansas north to Hudson Bay and central Alaska,
and from Maine to the coast of Oregon. The different conditions of
environment prevailing over this great range have had their effect
in modifying the colors of the ruffed grouse so that several forms may
be distinguished. The color differences between the bird of the south-
ern Rocky Mountains and the Oregon ruffed grouse of the humid
west coast are especially marked. The latter is the most richly colored
of the North American grouse, and is notable for its handsomely
@ Wilson and Bonaparte, Am. Ornith., IV, p. 214, 1831.
b The Wilderness Hunter, p. 99, 1893.
¢ The ruffed grouse is separable into four forms: The common bird of the
Eastern States (Bonasa unbellus) ; the Canadian ruffed grouse (B. uw. togata)
of the spruce forests along the northern border, from Maine to British Celum-
bia; the gray ruffed grouse (B. u. wmbelloides) of the Rocky Mountains, north
to Alaska; and the Oregon ruffed grouse (B. wu. sabini) of the humid west
coast, from northern California to British Columbia.
6568—No. 24—05 m——_+4
26 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
contrasted black and reddish brown colors, set off by immaculate
white.
The ruffed grouse is one of the most highly prized of American
game birds. It is known in New England as the ‘ partridge,’ but in
the Southern States it is usually called ‘ pheasant.’ It is distinctly
a bird of the woods, imparting the spirit of the wilderness to every
sylvan retreat that it inhabits. In Virginia and Maryland, near the
city of Washington, the species is, or was until recently, not uncom-
mon along the rocky palisades of the Potomac and in deep gorges
lined with laurel thickets. In Essex County, N. J., it frequents the
crest of a wooded basaltic dike known as the Orange Mountains,
where the picturesque rocky woods with a good stand of deciduous
trees and an undergrowth of blueberry, second-growth white oak,
wild grape and bittersweet vines, and beds of partridge berry
(Mitchella repens) furnish a congenial home. That ruffed grouse
usually prefer deciduous to evergreen growths was particularly no-
ticed by the writer in 1892 and 1898 at Chocorua,-N. H., a hamlet
between Lake Winnepesaukee and the White Mountains. On his
tramps through heavy spruce forests remote from houses or clear-
ings he seldom came across grouse. He frequently met them, how-
ever, in woodland near farms or in clearings, and particularly along
wood roads. Birds in Their Relation to Man, p. 40, 1903.
c Birds of Dastern N. A., p. 858, 1881.
34 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
year and grown, and it is well fruited, owing to the budding two years iu
succession. No tree could have been more entirely budded, but the grouse can
not stand so as to reach the outmost terminal buds, as a rule; their weight is
too great.
The present investigation of stomachs revealed only an insignificant
percentage of apple buds, probably because most of the grouse exam-
ined were shot in places remote from orchards. The bird has been
known to eat also pear and peach buds, and probably would not
refuse cherry buds. From one crop, leaves of blackberry or raspberry
(Rubus sp.) were taken, and bud twigs of blueberry (Vaccinium
pennsylvanicum) and other species were not at.all uncommon. The
twigs severed by the sharp-edged bill of the grouse are all about the
same length, one-third of an inch. They appeared in the stomachs
as little whitish sticks, from which digestion had removed the bark.
The extent to which the ruffed grouse browses on leaves and twigs
suggests an herbivorous mammal rather than a bird.
The ruffed grouse feeds on leaves and buds of the mayflower
(E'pigea repens), and likes exceedingly the leaves of the partridge
berry. (Mfitchella repens). It nips off also leaves of both red and
white clover, to the extent of 1 percent of its food. It is partial to
the leaves of sheep sorrel (Rumew acetosella), which it cuts across as
sharply as if by a pair of scissors, but it eats yellow sorrel (Owalis
stricta) with less relish. It appears to like dandelion greens, and
has a queer taste for the fronds of ferns (Dryopteris spinulosa,
Botrychium obliquum, and Polypodium vulgare). In its relation
to conifers it differs widely from the spruce grouse, for it derives
therefrom, only an insignificant percentage of its food, while the
spruce grouse obtains nearly 50 percent. Spruce needles and foliage
of arborvite (Thuja oécidentalis) have been seen in several stomachs.
Edward A. Samuels believes that the ruffed grouse will eat leaves of
evergreens only when all other food is lacking. In Alaska, E. W.
Nelson found the bird feeding exclusively on spruce buds. He states
that the flesh becomes disagreeable from this pitchy diet.? The effect
of highly flavored food on the flesh of game birds has already been
referred to.
The ruffed grouse buds the highly poisonous laurel (Halmia lati-
folia). On this subject Alexander Wilson writes: °¢
During the deep snows of the winter, they have recourse to the buds of alder,
and the tender buds of the laurel. I have frequently found their crops dis-
tended with a large handful of these latter alone; and it has been confidently
asserted, that, after having fed for some time on the laurel buds, their flesh
becomes highly dangerous to eat, partaking of the poisonous qualities of the
plant.
«Our Northern and Eastern Birds, p. 387, 1883.
> Nat. Hist. Coll. in Alaska, p. 131, 1888.
¢ Am. Ornith., vol. II, p. 319, 1831.
RUFFED GROUSE. 35
Dr. John H. Brinton, of Jefferson Medical College, has known sev-
eral cases of glossitis (inflammation of the tongue) caused by eating
grouse that had fed on laurel,“ and Dr. N. Shoemaker has also known
of serious illness from the same source. V. K. Chestnut, Department
specialist on poisonous plants, gave an extract made from laurel
leaves to a chicken, which he subsequently killed and fed to a cat.
The cat was seriously affected, but ultimately recovered. Jn Phila-
delphia in 1790 the public was alarmed over the possibilities of laurel
poisoning, and the sale of these birds was for a time forbidden. Dr.
B. H. Warren shot 10 birds when the ground was deeply covered with
snow, and found their crops stuffed with laurel buds.° Not more
than half a dozen stomachs of the 208 examined by the Biological
Survey contained fragments of this plant, the explanation probably
being that only a few stomachs were collected in late winter, when
birds most resort to it. Four of the birds that contained laurel were
used for food, with no evident ill effect. One of these had eaten 14
grams of laurel, nearly all leaves, with only a few buds. The leaves
had been clipped into bits as if by scissors. Investigation of this
habit of the grouse, known to be a common one, is much needed. The
maple is often selected for budding, and sometimes the spicebush.
Flowers are sometimes plucked by browsing grouse. Asters and red
clover have been identified in their food, and the green ovary of
bloodroot (Sanguinaria) was found in a bird’s crop by Amos W.
Butler.
The following plants also are in the list of browse of this bird:
Heuchera (Heuchera americana). Meadow rue (Thalictrum sp.).
Chickweed (Alsine pubera). Smilax (Smilax glauca).
Catnip (NVepeta cataria). Horsetail rush (Equisetum sp.).
Cinquefoil (Potentilla argentea). Azalea (Azalea sp.).
Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosa False goat’s beard (.Astilbe sp.).
and R. acris). Aster (Aster sp.).-
Speedwell (Teronica officinalis). Cud weed (Gnaphalium purpu-
Saxifrage (Saxifraga sp.). reum).
Live-forever (Sedum sp.).
FRUIT.
The ruffed grouse is preeminently a berry eater. Not only does it
consume more fruit than the bobwhite, but it is our most frugivorous
game bird. More than one-fourth of its yearly food—28.32 percent—
consists of fruit, distributed as follows: 3.82 percent rose hips, 2.46
percent poison ivy and sumac, 3.01 percent grapes, and 19.03 percent
miscellaneous fruits.
a Warren, Birds of Penn., p. 108, 1890.
tb North Am. Med. Journ., I, pp. 321-822, 1826.
c Birds of Pennsylvania, p. 108, 1890.
36 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
The taste for rose hips, seedy and husky as they are, and often
beset with fine bristles which irritate the human skin and would seem
really dangerous to internal tissues, is one of the singular freaks of
bird feeding. It reminds one of the cuckoo’s liking for caterpillars
which are so bristly that its stomach becomes actually felted and
sometimes pierced by the stiff hairs. Rose hips hang on the bushes
throughout the winter, accessible to the hungry grouse as they journey
about in the snow for food, and are usually swallowed whole.
The bird likes grapes also. No less than 3.01 percent of the year’s
diet consists of them, and in November they make 17.2 percent of the
total food for the month. All experienced sportsmen know of this
taste, and during this month they always count on getting their best
shooting in the vicinity of heavily fruited grapevines. The wild
grapes with small berries, such as Vitis cordifolia, are especially liked,
but also large grapes are greatly relished. The species from which
cultivated varieties have been derived (Vitis labrusca) appears to be
commonly selected. Thirty to forty grapes are often swallowed at
ameal. From this taste one might expect the grouse to commit dep-
redations on cultivated grapes, but no reports of such damage have
come to the Biological Survey.
Like many other birds, the ruffed grouse eats the berries of sumac
and other species of Rhus. This food contributes 2.46 percent of the
year’s diet. Among the nonpoisonous sumacs selected are the. dwarf
sumac (hus copallina), the staghorn sumac (&. hirta), and the
scarlet sumac (2. glabra). Not uncommonly from 300 to 500 berries
of the dwarf sumac are swallowed at a meal. This liking for the dry
and apparently nonnutritious sumac is another curious freak of bird
appetite. Probably, as with the bobwhite, the seeds are broken up in
the gizzard and the inclosed meat, or endosperm, set free for diges-
tion. The immunity of the bird from poisoning by poison sumac
and poison ivy, which also it eats, is interesting. That these seeds
retain their virulence after being eaten was shown in the case of an
investigator in the Biological Survey who was poisoned while exam-
ining stomachs of crows that had fed on poison-ivy berries. At times
the ruffed grouse eats many of these berries, as proven by one col-
lected by Prof. S. A. Forbes, at Jackson, Ill., December 9, 1880,
which had eaten 280 of them. Where grouse are numerous, poison
sumac is usually less abundant than poison ivy, and consequently it
appears less frequently in stomach examinations. One hundred and
sixty poison-ivy berries were taken from the crop of a ruffed grouse
shot by Dr. A. K. Fisher at Lake George, N. Y., October 24, 1899.
Miscellaneous fruits amount to 19.03 percent of the annual food.
The two favorite kinds are the partridge berry (AMitchella repens)
and the thorn apple (various species of Crategus), both of which
were eaten by 40 of the 208 grouse examined. At least two species
RUFFED GROUSE. awe
of thorn apple are used for food—the cockspur thorn (Crategus crus-
galt) and the scarlet thorn ((. coccinea). These apple-like fruits
afford a nutritious food. At Peterboro, N. Y., the writer observed
grouse coming to thorn-apple trees during November and well into
December. That they take large numbers at a meal is shown by an
individual obtained at St. Vincent, Minn., which had eaten 38.
W. H. Kobbé says that grouse eat with great relish the small wild
crab apple of the Northwest (Pyrus rirularis).« They enjoy culti-
vated apples, seldom missing a chance at trees on the edge of wood-
lands. At Chocorua, N. H., in October, 1898, some of the birds killed
in old orchards of abandoned farms had fed principally on apples.
After thorn apples and partridge berries, a number of other fruits
are also staples. The large brilliant clusters of the mountain ash
(Sorbus americana) are acceptable, and the delicious wintergreen
berries, with scarlet skin and snowy pulp, are also relished. The
bayberry (lyrica carolinensis) is a favorite food wherever accessible.
In grouse stomachs one often finds nothing but the little round
granules contained in the waxy drupes of this berry. Blueberries also
are eaten in large quantities. A bird killed at Chocorua, N. H., July
25, 1892, had eaten a hundred blueberries (Vaccinium pennsylvani-
cum), and one killed at Chateaugay, N. Y., in September, contained
about three hundred. The high-bush blackberry and the huckle-
berry also are eaten, as well as the cranberry. Dr. A. K. Fisher
found 21 whole cranberries in a bird shot at Lake George, N. Y.,
November 2, 1901. The extent to which blackberries are sometimes
eaten is shown by the fact that the stomach of a grouse contained
about 800 blackberry seeds. Another bird had eaten over a hundred
sarsaparilla berries. An explanation of the delicious flavor of the
ruffed grouse appears in its varied and highly flavored diet of fruit,
herbs, and seeds. In addition to the fruits already noted the follow-
ing kinds found in the birds examined may be named, though the
total number mentioned in this bulletin is probably not a fourth of
the complete list of fruits eaten by this bird:
Greenbrier (Smilax sp/).
Hairy Solomon’s seal (Polygona-
tum biflorum).
Smooth Solomon’s seal (Polygona-
tum commutatum).
Blackberry (Rubus nigrobaccus).
Black raspberry (Rubus oeciden-
talis).
Raspberry (Rubus strigosus).
Domestic cherry (Prunus avium).
- Cultivated plum (Prunus domes-
tica).
Wild black cherry (Prunus sero-
tina).
Wild red cherry (Prunus pennsyl-
vanica),
Elder (Sambucus canadensis).
Red elder (Sambucus pubens).
Black haw (Viburnum prunifo-
lium).
Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago).
Withe rod (Viburniwm cassinoides).
Maple-leaved arrow wood (Vibur-
num acerifolium).
@ Auk, XVII, p. 351, 1900.
38
High-bush cranberry (Viburnum
opulus).
Mountain cranberry (Vaccinium
vitis-idea).
Snowberry (Symphoricarpus sp.).
Feverwort (Triostewm perfolia-
tum).
Black huckleberry (Gaylussacia
resinosa@).
Black alder (Ilex verticillata).
GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis).
Cornel (Cornus paniculata).
Silky cornel (Cornus amonum).
Pepperidge (Nyssa sylvatica).
Mulberry (Morus rubra).
Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens).
Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.).
Barberry (Berberis vulgaris).
Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus
quinquefolia). ,
Flowering dogwood (Cornus flor-
ida).
The seeds of most of these berries pass through the digestive tract
unharmed and are capable of germinating. Thus the grouse assists
in planting many fruiting trees and shrubs, the heavy seeds of which
must be disseminated mainly through the agency of animals that feed
on them.
Foop oF THE YOUNG.
The young of most birds are far more insectivorous than adults, a
statement that applies to gallinaceous birds, though to a less extent
than to passerines. More than 95 percent of the diet of eight grouse
chicks examined, none of which was more than a fourth grown, was
insects. Seven adults collected in the breeding season had consumed
only 30 percent of insects. Newly hatched chicks eat the largest
proportion of insects. As they grow older they gradually become
more frugivorous and granivorous. Three chicks, only a day or
two old, collected by Prof. S. A. Forbes, at: Waukegan, Il., June 9,
1876, proved to have been exclusively insectivorous. They had eaten
cutworms, grasshoppers, Lampyrid beetles, ants (Zetramorium
cespitum) , parasitic wasps, buffalo tree hoppers, and spiders (Attide
and Phalangidw). A grouse about a week out of the shell, collected
by F. H. King, had eaten a white grub, 7 spiders (Phalangide),
and 13 caterpillars.* It should be noted, therefore, that the ruffed
grouse, though only slightly insectivorous when adult, as a chick
destroys great numbers of insects, and deserves much more credit
from farmers than it usually receives.
THE SPRUCE GROUSE.
(Canachites canadensis.)>
The spruce, or Canada, grouse inhabits the transcontinental conif-
erous forests from the northern border of the United States, east of
4Trans. Wis. Ag. Soc., vol. 24, pp. 472-473, 1886.
b The spruce grouse (Canachites canadensis) is separated into three geographic
forms, of which two occur within our territory; these are the common spruce
grouse (C. c. canace) of the northern border from Maine to Minnesota, and the
Alaska spruce grouse (C. ¢. osgoodi) of Alaska and western Canada.
SPRUCE GROUSE. 39
the Rocky Mountains, to Labrador and Alaska. The male is one of
the handsomest of the grouse; it is gray, with black bars above and
clear black and white below, with a rusty band edging its fanlike tail.
In spring brilliant red combs above the eyes add to the beauty of the
strutting cock. These birds drum in an odd way: The male selects
an inclined tree and flutters up the trunk for 15 to 20 feet, drumming
as he goes. The spruce grouse nests in May or early June and lays
from 9 to 16 buff-colored eggs, handsomely marked with rich chestnut
and brown,
FOOD HABITS.
Study of the food habits of the spruce grouse has been but meager,
since only 8 stomachs were available for examination. These were
collected in January, May, August, September, October, and Novem-
ber, 6 of them in Canada, 1 in Michigan, and 1 in Minnesota. The
material in the stomachs consisted of 100 percent vegetable matter—
18.383 percent seeds, 19.73 percent fruit, 61.94 percent coniferous
foliage. The seeds were of spruce, thistle, and several unidentifi-
able plants. In its frugivorous habits the spruce grouse closely
resembles its relative. the blue grouse. The proportion of bear-
berries was 16.67 percent, and of other fruit 3.06 percent. Solomon’s
seal (Polygonatum), blueberries (Vaccinévm), bunchberries (Cornus
canadensis), crowberries (Lmpetrum), and juniper berries are among
the berries principally eaten. Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the
Biological Survey, has informed the writer that the spruce grouse
feeds largely on the bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) and the
wax currant (2ibes cerenm).
When cold weather comes the spruce grouse usually abandons a
berry diet and eats nothing but its favorite food—the leaves, buds, and
tender shoots of conifers. This kind of browse formed 61.94 percent
of the food of the eight birds examined in the laboratory. It is
safe to assume that more than half the year’s food of this grouse is
obtained by browsing, and that nearly half consists of the foliage
of conifers. Wilson and Bonaparte state that in winter this species
feeds on the shoots of spruce,* a habit so generally known that it has
given to the bird its name. According to Major Bendire, this grouse
feeds also on the needles of tamarack (Larix laricina), and in certain
localities feeds upon them exclusively.” It has been known also to eat
the needles of Pinus divaricata and the fir balsam (Abzes balsamea).
As with the blue grouse, resinous food imparts to the flesh a decidedly
pitchy flavor.
W. H. Osgood, of the Biological Survey, informs the writer that
he examined crops of the Alaska grouse which contained the leaves
«Am. Ornith., vol. 4, p. 208, 1831.
> Life Hist. N. A. Birds, [I], p. 52, 1892.
40 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
of blueberry (Vaccinium) and horsetail (Equisetum). The Alaska
spruce grouse, according to Dr. W. H. Dall, was found at Nulato in
winter feeding exclusively on the buds of willow.
The flesh of the spruce grouse is dark and for the table is in no way
comparable to that of the blue grouse. Nor is the bird equal to the
latter as an object of sport. It is, however, a thing of beauty in the
dark northern coniferous forests, where its aesthetic value must impress
every lover of nature. This grouse is strictly a forest bird, and no-
where appears to come into contact with agriculture.
THE FRANKLIN GROUSE.
(Canachites franklini.)
The Franklin grouse is very similar to its near relative, the spruce
grouse, and differs mainly in the conspicuous white marking on its
upper tail coverts and in lacking the rufous tip to the tail. It is
found in the mountains of western Montana and Idaho, westward to
the coast ranges of Oregon and Washington and northward through
British Columbia to southern Alaska. Major Bendire records
that nidification occurs during the last of May and in June. The
food habits of the bird are similar to those of the spruce grouse. In
Alberta, between August 25 and September 1, 1894, J. A. Loring, a
field agent of the Biological Survey, examined the crops of several
Franklin grouse and found in them berries and leaves. A. H. How-
ell, also of the Survey, examined crops and gizzards in Idaho during
the last of September, 1895, and found in them large quantities of the
leaves of the lodge-pole pine (Pinus murrayana) broken into bits
from one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch long. Major Bendire
notes that in summer they furnish Indians and packers with
their principal supply of fresh meat. Their flesh is palatable then
because they eat grasshoppers and berries and feed less freely on the
buds and leaves of spruce and tamarack.?
Hon. Theodore Roosevelt writes of this bird in Montana :°
The mountain men call this bird the fool-hen; and most certainly it deserves
the name. The members of this particular flock, consisting of a hen and her
three-parts grown chicks, acted with a stupidity unwonted even for their kind.
They were feeding on the ground among some young spruce, and on our
approach flew up and perched in the branches, four or five feet above our heads.
There they stayed, uttering a low complaining whistle, and showed not the
slightest suspicion when we came underneath them with long sticks and knocked
them off their perches.
a Nelson, Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, p. 130, 1887 (1888).
» Life Hist. N. A. Birds, [1], p. 58, 1892.
¢ The Wilderness Hunter, p. 116, 1893.
.
DUSKY GROUSE. 41
THE DUSKY GROUSE.
(Dendragapus obscurus. ja
The dusky, or blue, grouse lives mainly in coniferous forests of the
western mountain ranges, occurring in the Rocky Mountains from
New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, north to Canada and Alaska,
and west to the Pacific coast. These grouse are large, plainly colored
birds, mainly of a slaty or dusky shade. In unfrequented forests
they are so unsophisticated that they often perch on a low branch and
gaze curiously at an intruder until struck by a stone or stick. From
their unsuspicious nature they are known in parts of the West, like
the previous species, as fool-hens. While commonly habitants of the
higher forests, they often descend to lower levels on the mountain
sides where deciduous trees and bushes mingle with the conifers.
The dusky grouse is a valuable food bird and weighs from 2} to
34 pounds. Wilbur C. Knight says: ®
Of all the edible birds of the west this and the following variety [Richard-
son’s grouse] are the most desirable. The flesh is highly flavored, tender, juicy,
and as white as that of a tame fowl. .
The flavor of a game bird’s flesh is often affected by the character
of its diet, as is the case with the blue grouse after it has been feeding
on the pitchy foliage of conifers. ‘“ The use of such food imparts to
the flesh of these birds,” says Major Bendire, “a strong resinous
flavor, not particularly relished by me at first.”° Baird, Brewer, and
Ridgway, however, state that the pine taste only improves the bird’s
gamy fiavor.¢ Vernon Bailey states that half-grown young of the
blue grouse which had been feeding largely on gooseberries were
excellent eating, being entirely free from pitchiness. George B.
Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, notes that a diet of a small
species of.red whortleberry also makes the flesh delicious.¢
As an object of sport the blue grouse is in the front rank of game-
birds, even though it spends much time in the deep coniferous for-
ests. It lies well to the dog, flies swiftly, and affords shots in heavy
timber that test the sportsman’s highest skill.
eIn addition to the common dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) of the
Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to Montana, three other geographic forms
are known. These are the sooty grouse (D. 0. fuliginosus) of the northwest
coast, from California to southern Alaska ; Richardson grouse (D. 0. richard-
sont), from Montana to northwestern British America; and the Sierra dusky
grouse (D. 0. sierre) of the Sierra Nevada in California and east slope of Cas-
eade Mountains in Oregon.
bd Birds of Wyoming, p. 54, 1902.
e Auk, vol. 6, p. 33, 1889.
a Hist. N. A. Birds, vol. 3, pp. 424-425, 1874.
e Forest and Stream, yol. 12, p. 365, 1879.
42 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
The dusky grouse cock is quite uniformly dark in color, as the
name implies. In the mating season the bird presents a striking
appearance: The brilliant comblike wattles above its eyes are con-
spicuous, the large, yellow wind sacs on the sides of its neck are fully
inflated, and it struts about like a turkey cock, with drooping wings
and spreading tail, emitting a sound that closely resembles the hoot-
ing of the great horned owl. The nesting takes place during the last
half of May, when the hen bird scratches a slight hollow in the earth
and lays from 6 to 12 cream-colored, brown-spotted eggs. Usually
but one brood is reared in a season. Prof. W. W. Cooke, in writing of
the habits of the species in Colorado, says that it breeds from 7,000
feet altitude to timber line, 4,000 feet higher. At the former altitude.
it lays about the middle of May. In August the birds gather in
flocks and visit grainfields, or frequent the more open gulches and
foothills for berries. In September they wander above timber line
to feed on grasshoppers, reaching an altitude of 12,500 feet. In
severe winter weather some of the birds come down into the thick ,
woods, but many remain the whole year close to timber line.
FOOD HABITS.
The food habits of the dusky grouse have been studied by examina-
tion of the contents of 45 crops and stomachs, representing every
month of the year except May, June, and November. Most of the
birds were shot in British Columbia, Colorado, and Idaho, but a few
came from Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and California. The food
consisted of 6.73 percent animal matter—insects, with an occasional
spider—and 93.27 percent of vegetable matter—seeds, fruit, and
leaves. Grasshoppers constitute the bulk of the animal food, amount-
ing to 5.73 percent. Beetles, ants, end caterpillars form the rest of
the insect food. One stomach contained the common land snail
(Polygyra sp.). Major Bendire, Vernon Bailey, and Walter K.
Fisher have shown that the young birds feed largely on grasshoppers.
Mr. Fisher shot a young bird at Forest Grove, Oreg., July 6, 1897 ;
which had eaten 20 grasshoppers and several smooth, green larve.
VEGETABLE Foon.
The dusky grouse and its near relative, the spruce grouse, -are
among our chief foliage-eating birds. Browse is eaten by the blue
grouse to the extent of 68.19 percent of its annual food, and is dis-
tributed as follows: Buds and twigs, 5.28 percent; coniferous foliage,
54.02 percent; other leaves, 8.89 percent. The species spends most of
«Birds of Colorado, p. 70, 1897.
DUSKY GROUSE. 43
its time in pine forests feeding on needles, buds, and flowers. The
yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa)—male flowers, the white fir (Ab/es
concolor), Abies magnifica, the Douglas fir (Pse udotsuga mucronata) ,
the western hemlock (Z'suga heterophylla), and the black hemlock
(Tsuga mertensiana) are among the trees that afford it subsistence.
That the blue grouse thus utilizes the foliage of conifers is well known
to everybody familiar with the bird. Major Bendire writes that dur-
ing the winter its food consists almost wholly of the buds and tender
“tops of pine and fir branches, refuse bits of which sometimes accu-
mulate under a single tree to the amount of a-bushel.2. A blue grouse
shot by W. W. Price at Slippery Ford, Cal., when 15 feet of snow lay
on a level, had filled its crop with the young leaves of the white fir.
Plants other than conifers furnish 14.17 percent of the annual food
of the species. This material includes red clover leaves, willow
leaves, blueberry leaves, miterwort (Jl/étella breweri), birch shoots,
and poplar flower buds. During July, in Montana and Utah, field
agents of the Biological Survey have seen the bird feeding on the
leaves, buds, and flowers of the Mariposa lily (Cualochortus). It
eats also the blossoms of lupine, columbine, and the Indian paint
brush (Castilleja).
The blue grouse is only slightly granivorous. Its seed food
amounts to but 4.99 percent of the whole—a proportion small indeed
when compared with that of the bobwhite and the crested quails.
The species is said by Alexander Wilson to resort to seeds only when
other food is scarce.° At times it visits fields for oats and other grain.
It feeds also on pine seeds (Pinus flewilis and other species). It picks
up polygonum seeds (P. polymorphum and others), is fond of wild
sunflower seeds, and has been known to sample false sunflower (Wye-
thia mollis), caraway (Glycosma occidentalis), and the capsules of
Pentstemon gracilis. It picks up also the seeds of various species of
lupine, ‘and is fond of acorns, including those of the canyon live oak
(Quercus chrysolepis) .
The blue grouse is one of the most highly frugivorous of our gal-
linaceoug birds. Fruit formed 20.09 percent of the food of the 45
birds whose stomachs were examined in the laboratory. Manzanita
berries constituted a large part, amounting to 13.48 percent of the
total. During the summer and early fall they were eaten in great
quantities. The manzanita often forms tangled areas of chaparral
and includes a number of species which furnish birds and mammals
an abundant supply of berries. The berries eaten by the blue grouse
« Auk, vol. 6, p. 33, 1889.
» Condor, vol. 8, p. 160, 1901.
c Am. Ornith., vol. 4, p. 191, 1831.
44 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
include Arctostaphylos pungens, A. nevadensis, and A. uva-ursi. Its
list of fruits also includes the following:
Mountain twin berry. Service berry (Amelanchier alni-
Red elder (Sambucus pubens). folia).
Honeysuckle (Lonicera involu- Salal (Gaultheria shallon).
crata; Lonicera conjugialis). Huckleberry (Vaccinium occiden-
Cherry (Prunus sp.). tale).
Mountain ash (Sorbus sambuci- Currant (Ribes cereum, Ribes san-
-folia). guineum).
Salmon berry (Rubus parviflorus). Gooseberry (Ribes menz viesis); G
The food habits of all young birds differ more or less from those of
their parents. Young blue grouse at first live chiefly on grass-
hoppers and other insects and on tender plant tops. Later in the sea-
son they subsist on berries, such as gooseberries and salal-berries, and
some seeds, such as those of the wild sunflower. Florence Merriam
Bailey, in writing recently of the habits of the dusky grouse in New
Mexico, says:
Near our camp at the foot of Pecos Baldy, Mr. Bailey discovered a winter
roosting tree of the grouse. The tree was on a sheltered part of the wooded
slope and was so densely branched that after a prolonged rain the ground
beneath was perfectly dry. The earth was strewn with winter droppings, com-
posed entirely of the leaves of conifers. Conifer needles had also been eaten
by three of the grouse that were taken * * * in July and August, but at
this season the birds were living principally on such fresh food as strawberries,
bearberries (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), sheperdia berries, flowers of the lupine
and paint brush, seeds, green leaves, grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, and other
insects. One crop contained twenty-seven strawberries, twenty-eight bear-
berries, and twelve sheperdia berries, besides flowers, leaves, and insects, while
the accompanying gizzard was filled with seeds, green leaves, and insects.
THE WILLOW PTARMIGAN.
(Lagopus lagopus.)
Ptarmigans are characteristic of the arctic and arctic-alpine
wegions. During summer they are mainly gray and brown, resem-
bling the mottled colors of the bare earth, but at the approach of
winter they change this plumage for one of pure white. Thus they
harmonize with their surroundings at all seasons and are better
able to escape their numerous enemies. There are four species of
these birds in the United States and Alaska. Of these the willow
ptarmigan, white ptarmigan, or willow grouse, as it is variously
known, is the largest, most abundant, and consequently the most
important. It is found in the arctic regions of both hemispheres,
and is widely spread and abundant throughout the tundra country
of Alaska, except on the Aleutian Islands. Throughout its range,
especially in winter, it is an important food bird. In the north
@ Auk, vol. 21, p. 351, 1904.
WILLOW PTARMIGAN. 45
periods of famine are ever recurring among the natives, and these
birds ifrequently stand between them and starvation. It rears but
one brood in a season, nesting on the ground early in June and laying
from 7 to 12 eggs. By the middle of August the young are nearly
grown. In the northern part of its range the willow ptarmigan is
a summer resident only, and at the approach of winter most of the
birds migrate in large flocks, sometimes numbering a thousand or
more, southward or inland to a region of scattered trees or bushes.
Ernest Thompson Seton, quoting from Hutchins’ manuscript con-
cerning observations at Hudson Bay in 1782, says that over 10,000
ptarmigans were caught with nets at Severn from November to
April.« The birds are so tame, especially in winter, that their cap-
ture is easy. Like all other gallinaceous birds, ptarmigans require
gravel for milling their food, and in winter deep snow makes this
hard to procure. The natives, taking advantage of the birds’ neces-
sities, bait their nets with gravel, and sometimes catch as many as
300 at one spring of a net.? E. W. Nelson writes of encountering
flocks of several thousand white ptarmigans in Alaska in midwinter,
and says that the whirring of their wings as they rose sounded like
the roll of thunder and seemed to shake the ground. He reports
that the birds are snared and shot in great numbers by both the
Alaskan Eskimos and the Indians.° The flesh is not so palatable as
that of many other game birds, and is decidedly dry and often
bitter when the bird feeds on willow buds. The flesh of old birds
is dark colored, but that of the young is white and delicately flavored.
FOOD HABITS.
‘Study of the food of the willow ptarmigan unfortunately has
been slight, for only five birds were available. Their food was
entirely vegetable. Three shot in January in Labrador had eaten 10
percent of berries and 90 percent of buds, more than half the buds
being willow. One stomach contained about 300 willow-flower buds.
The two'other birds were collected in December in Labrador and had
eaten willow buds exclusively. Though the data are so scanty, the
results agree with those of other students. Ludwig Kumlien, for
instance, says: ?
They [willow ptarmigans] are quite common in the larger valleys, where
there is a ranker growth of willows. The stomachs of those I examined of this
species contained willow buds and small twigs.
aProc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 13, p. 514, 1890.
» Hearne, Journey to the Northern Ocean, pp. 413-415, 1795.
e Nat. Hist. Coll. in Alaska, Dp. 132, 1887 (1888).
@ Bull. 15, U. S. Nat. Mus., pp. 82-83, 1879.
46 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway have stated that the crops of ptar-
migans were often found to contain a double handful of willow buds."
L. M. Turner writes thus of the bird in Alaska :?
During the winter these birds subsist on the past year’s twigs of willow and
calder or other bushes. I have cut open the crops of many of these winter-killed
birds and found them to contain only pieces of twigs about one-third of an inch
long, or just about the width of the gape of the posterior horny part of the bill,
as though this had been the means of measurement in cutting them off. The
flesh at this time is dry and of a peculiar taste. In spring the ptarmigans con-
gregate in great numbers on the willow bushes and eat the tender, swelling buds.
The flesh then acquires a bitter but not unpleasant taste. As open weather
advances they find berries that have remained frozen the entire winter, and
tender grass shoots, and later, insects. The young are insectivorous to a great
degree in their youngest days. They consume great numbers of spiders that
are to be found on the warm hillsides.
In writing of the food of the willow grouse, Major Bendire says
that the buds and tender leaves of birch are eaten, and the berries of
cranberry, whortleberry, and arbutus.© Wilson and Bonaparte state
that it feeds on berries, including the crowberry (EZ’mpetrum nigrum)
and the mountain cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idea) 4
THE ROCK PTARMIGAN.
(Lagopus rupestris.) ¢
The rock ptarmigan inhabits arctic America from Labrador to
Alaska (including the entire Aleutian chain, where the willow ptar-
migan is unknown). It is similar to the latter bird, but smaller and
has a black line from the bill to the eye by which it may readily be
distinguished. This bird is less common than the willow ptarmigan
and prefers more rocky and elevated situations. Owing to.its smaller
size and fewer numbers it is far less important to the people of the
north as an article of food than the willow ptarmigan. i
FOOD HABITS. ts
No stomachs of the rock ptarmigan have been available for exami-
nation. In Alaska, during May, E. W. Nelson found it feeding on
berries of the preceding season.‘ Major Bendire says that the sub-
@ Hist. N. A. Birds, Land Birds, III, p. 461, 1874.
> Nat. Hist. Alaska, p. 153, 1886.
¢ Life Hist. N. A. Birds, [I], p. 74, 1892.
¢d Am. Ornith., IV, p. 328, 1831.
e Besides the typical Lagopus rupestris of arctic America, the rock ptarmi-
gans of North America include the Reinhardt ptarmigan (L. r. reinhardi), of
Greenland and northern Labrador; the Welch ptarmigan (L. welchi), of New-
foundland; and four forms found in the Aleutian Islands—L. r. nelsoni, L. r.
atkhensis, L. r. townsendi, and L. evermanni. Re
f Nat. Hist. Coll, Alaska, p. 136, 1887 (1888).
WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN. 47
species Lagopus rupestris reinhardi feeds on insects, leaves, berries,
including the crowberry (Z’mpetrum nigrum), tender leaves of the
dwarf birch and white birch, willow buds, and sorrel. Samuel
Hearne notes that the rock ptarmigan eats the buds and tops of the
dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa).» WKumlien examined a crop that
was crammed with sphagnum moss.¢
THE WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN.
(Lagopus leucurus.)
The white-tailed ptarmigan is found above timber line in Alaska,
in the mountains of British Columbia, and in the higher Cascades
south to Mounts Hood and Jefferson. It ranges south along the
Rocky Mountains through Colorado to northern New Mexico. Unlike
the other species, this ptarmigan has no black feathers in the tail.
Writing of this bird in Colorado, W. W. Cooke says that it breeds
above timber line, virtually. under arctic conditions, and that only in
most severe winters does it descend into timber. He records that it
breeds at from 11,500 to 18,500 feet altitude, and wanders up to the
summits of peaks 1,000 feet higher. Nesting takes place early in June
and is similar to that of other ptarmigans. In winter, when the birds
descend to lower altitudes, the sexes are in different flocks.
The white-tailed ptarmigan is a trusting creature, lacking the fear
necessary: for self-prescrvation. Clark P. Streator, while employed
by the Biological Survey in the Cascade Mountains of Washington,
reported that one could approach within 10 feet of it, that miners
killed it with stones, and that it was very good for food.
In Colorado public sentiment is strongly in its favor, and it is
protected by an absolutely prohibitory law. The ptarmigan is one
of the sights pointed out to tourists in the Colorado mountains. Its
status here may be contrasted with that of the willow grouse in the
north, where thousands are killed by Eskimos and Indians. Killing
birds for food, however, even by wholesale, has its excuse, but whole-
sale slaughter for millinery purposes, such as has overtaken the
ptarmigans in the Old World, is unpardonable. A single shipment
of ptarmigan wings in Russia consisted of 10 tons.¢
FOOD HABITS.
During winter in Colorado, according to Professor Cooke, thev
subsist, like other ptarmigan, largely on willow buds. The stomachs
«Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, [TI], p. 80, 1892.
b Journey to Northern Ocean, p. 416, 1795.
ce Bull. 15, U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 83, 1879.
@ Engelhardt, A Russian Province of the North, 1899.
48 GROUSE AND WILD TURKEYS OF UNITED STATES.
of two birds collected at Summitville, Colo., in January, 1891, at an
altitude of 13,000 feet, were found to contain bud twigs from one-
third to one-half inch long, but the kind of bush from which they
came could not be determined. Doctor Coues, quoting T. M. Trippe,
states that the food of this bird is insects, leguminous flowers, and
the buds and leaves of pines and firs. According to Major Bendire,
the flowers and leaves of marsh marigold (Caltha leptosepala) and
the leaf buds and catkins of the dwarf birch (Betula glandulosa) are
eaten.” Dr. A. K. Fisher examined the stomachs of two downy
chicks collected on Mount Rainier, Washington, and found beetles
and flowers of heather (Casstope mertensiana) and those of a small
blueberry.
THE WILD TURKEY. ,
(Meleagris gallopavo.) ¢
The wild turkey, our biggest game bird, was formerly abundant
over a wide area. It has been exterminated throughout much of its
former range, and unless radical measures are taken it will become
extinct in a few years. In early colonial days it was numerous in
Massachusetts, coming about the houses of the settlers in large
flocks. It is now totally extinct in New England. It is hard to
realize that at the beginning of the nineteenth century turkeys were
so abundant that they sold for 6 cents apiece, though the largest
ones, weighing from 25 to 30 pounds, sometimes brought a quarter of
a dollar. A big wild turkey nowadays would not long go begging
at $5. It is their value as food that has made it worth while to
hunt turkeys to the very point of extermination. So-called sports-
men go out in the late summer ostensibly to shoot squirrels, but really
to pot turkeys on the roost. Another practice is to lie in ambush and
lure the game by imitating the call note of the hen in spring. The
writer has personal knowledge of such methods of hunting in Vir-
ginia and Maryland, and they are largely responsible for the exter-
mination now imminent. Trapping turkeys in pens—a very simple
matter—has also accelerated the destruction of the species.
William Brewster found the turkey breeding in North Carolina
among the conifers at 5,000 feet altitude, and also in the hardwoods
at low altitudes. Edward A. Preble, of the Biological Survey, dis-
@ Birds of the Northwest, p. 427, 1874.
- b Life Hist. N. A. Birds, [I], pp. 85-86, 1892.
¢ The typical Meleagris gallopavo is restricted to Mexico; but four geographic
races have been recognized within the United States. These are the wild tur-
key of the Eastern States and the Mississippi Valley (Meleagris gallopavo sil-
vestris) ; the Florida turkey (M. g. osceola); the Rio Grande turkey (M. g.
intermedia) ; and the Merriam turkey of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and
the table-land of northern Mexico (1M. g. merriami).
WILD TURKEY. 49
covered a turkey’s nest, in June, 1893, in Somerset County, Pa., which
contained 14 eggs. William Lloyd states that the Texas turkey
breeds twice a year. He found a nest, May 29, containing 8 eggs.
The chicks, like those of the tame turkey, are very delicate, and are
especially sensitive to wet. Audubon says that during wet weather
they are fed by their mothers with the buds of spice bush, much as
human youngsters are dosed with quinine. When the chicks are
2 weeks old they fly up and roost on low branches with their
mother. At this age they have weathered most of their early perils.
During the last of December, 1902, along the Roanoke River, near
the North Carolina line, the writer found turkeys in typical turkey
country. Few of the plantations here are under a thousand acres,
and many include three or four thousand. Along the river are low
lands, often flooded during high water. Several hundred yards far-
ther back is a bluff, the old river terrace, which marks the beginning
of the uplands.