190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., 



Stomachs of three bank swallows contained, altogether, two 

 hundred ants, and a nighthawk has been known to take a 

 thousand at a single meal. One thousand seven hundred seeds 

 of weeds had been taken at one feeding by a bob-white; three 

 thousand leguminous seeds were found in another, and no less 

 than five thousand seeds of pigeon grass were taken from a 

 third. Dr. Warren has taken twenty-eight cut-worms from 

 the stomach of a red-winged blackbird. Stomachs of snow- 

 flakes examined at the Biological Survey have contained from 

 five hundred to fifteen hundred weed seeds. Professor Forbes 

 took from the stomachs of seven cedar birds, or cherry birds, 

 nearly one hundred canker w^orms each. In a letter recently 

 received from Professor Beal he says that one hundred entire 

 beetles were found in the stomach of a cliff swallow ; that from 

 the stomach of a yellow-billed cuckoo there were taken the 

 remains of eighty-two caterpillars, each of which was origi- 

 nally from one to one and one-half inches long; another had 

 taken eighty-six, and from forty to sixty were found in several 

 others. From the stomach of a Franklin gull there were taken 

 seventy entire grasshoppers, and the jaws of ninety-five more, 

 showing that it had eaten one hundred and sixty-five grass- 

 hoppers. Another contained ninety grasshoppers and one hun- 

 dred and two additional jaws. Another contained sixty-eight 

 crickets. These grasshoppers and crickets were each more than 

 an inch in length. When we consider that the digestion of 

 birds is continuous, and that when food is plentiful the stom- 

 ach is filled many times each day, the effect that must be pro- 

 duced on the insects with which birds satisfy their appetites 

 will be more clearly understood. There are many records of 

 the benefits resulting from the insectivorous habits of birds, 

 and many others w-hich tell of the increase of injurious insects 

 which has followed the destruction of birds, but time will not 

 allow me to quote them here, for the chief question to be con- 

 sidered tonight is, " How shall we attract and protect the use- 

 ful birds about our homes ? " 



He who is about to purchase a farm or country place may, 

 by keeping in mind the attractions which birds require, secure 

 a place naturally well adapted to their wants. Such a place 

 should be so situated as to provide shelter from cold northerly 

 winds and storms. It must be well watered, and partly wooded 

 with groves or patches of evergreen trees and windbrakes of 



