90 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



[Vol. XXXIII 



WILD LIFE AND THE COMMUNITY. 



Local names; local ideas concerning wild life. 



Sentiment regarding game laws and legislation. 



Trapping and hunting methcds in local use; 

 prices received for pelts or animals sold. 



Relation of mammals to the public health; to 

 agriculture. 



Possible undeveloped resources in mammals, as 

 of flesh for food, fur or hides for clothing, or other 

 useful animal products for various purposes. 



Possibilities of utilization, through domestication 

 or semidomestication, of beneficial species." 



No one individual can hope to acquire full in- 

 formation on all the items listed, but any naturalist 

 who knows a species at all can put down something, 

 and apparently trivial things often turn out to be 



really important when considered in their relation 

 to other factors. "These relative lines of inquiry 

 include problems in scientific agriculture, geogra- 

 phical distribution, phenology, migration, ecology, 

 physiology, medical zoology, behavior, game 'iro- 

 tection and the conservation of natural resources, 

 morphology, heredity, organic evolution, and econ- 

 omic zoology." 



The Division of Biology (Mammalogy), The 

 Geological Survey, Ottawa, Canada, is interested 

 in building up a collection, and in gathering of life- 

 histories and other data in regard to the mammals 

 of Canada, and correspondence is solicited from 

 any person or institution working along these lines, 

 and advice or suggestions will be gladly given as 

 opportunity is offered. 



BIRDS IN RELATION TO SUNFLOWER GROWING IN MANITOBA. 



By Norman Criddle, Treesbank, Manitoba. 



There are several indigenous species of sunflower 

 in Manitoba some of them such as Helianthus 

 maximiliani being weeds of importance while others 

 merely add to the attractiveness of the landscape, 

 without being otherwise of interest to mankind. All, 

 however, have their values in the economy of nature 

 and for ages past have proved a valuable source of 

 food supply for certain native birds, as well as for 

 several rodents While animals thus take heavy toll 

 of the sunflower seeds, they also assist materially in 

 the spread of the species and it seems at least pos- 

 sible that these unusually large seeds have been 

 evolved for just such an end. In other words, the 

 plants offer an especially attractive food, in return 

 for which the animals carry a certain indefinite per- 

 centage of the seeds far beyond the range that they 

 would otherwise fall an unconscious form of re- 

 ciprocity very commonly met with in the realms of 

 nature. 



Under the ordinary course of events, the con- 

 ditions depicted above might have continued almost 

 indefinitely, but, as frequently happens, man has 

 intervened. Sunflowers have become of economic 

 importance from the human standpoint, the larger 

 ones for their seeds and the smaller kinds for fodder 

 purposes ; this apart from the fact that many are 

 grown in gardens as ornamental plants We have, 

 therefore, to view the relations of birds to sun- 

 flowers in another light presumably, again placing 

 the economic importance before the aesthetic. This 

 I have endeavored to do in the following sketch. 

 My observations are drawn largely from notes made 

 in a garden and refer especially to a bushy type of 

 sunflower originated by my brother Stuart. It 



seems well to mention also, that the garden is sur- 

 rounded by shrubs and young spruce trees, planted 

 to shelter the more tender plants therein. 



At Treesbank, Man., sunflowers are usually 

 above ground by the middle of May and it is at 

 this time that the first injury is done to them by birds 

 which eat the cotyledons. In doing this the birds 

 often follow the rows to the end and practically 

 destroy every plant. The House Sparrow having 

 a bad name, at once got the blame for this injury 

 and we accordingly set a watch who was prepared 

 to shoot the none too popular bird. But suspicion 

 may be misdirected as it proved to be in this case. 

 There was the thief at work, pulling and eating the 

 plants, and it proved to be no other than the White- 

 throated Sparrow, one of the most popular of all 

 the feathered tribe No wonder the gun was low- 

 ered or that the watcher, who happened to be my 

 brother Evelyn, should return to the house dis- 

 gusted at his discovery. Later we found that the 

 White-throat made a practice of sunflower eating 

 and that it continued from the time of its arrival in 

 early May until about the first of June when the 

 nesting period commenced. Occasionally other 

 sparrows, such as the White-crowned or Harris' 

 Sparrow would pull up a few plants, but they were 

 only casual depredators whereas the White-throat 

 went in search of the plants daily. Naturally such 

 injury would not take place in the open country 

 though it is possible that Longspurs or other birds 

 might prove equally troublesome under field con- 

 ditions. 



The injury to the newly sprouted sunflowers is 

 over early in June and from that time no further 



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