115 



now that the custom of hauling out manure onto the fields through the winter is 

 becoming general the number of birds that stay seems to be increasing. 



PEAIRIE HORNED LARK. 



Description. 



Adult male. Forehead line over the eye, ear region and throat white, more or 

 less tinged with yellow ; fore part of the crown, a tuft of elongated feathers on either 

 side of the head, a mark from the bill below the eye and then downward to the side 

 of the throat, and a patch on the breast black ; back of the head and neck and upper 

 tail coverts vinaceous, more or less washed with grayish brown ; back grayish brown, 

 edged with brownish ash and tinged with vinaceous; wing coverts deep vinaceous; 

 tail black, the outer vanes of the outer feathers margined with white, the middle 

 feathers broadly margined with brownish and vinaceous; below white. 



Adult female. Similar, but duller and the black much less sharply defined. 



L., 7.75; W., 4.25; T., 2.84. 



JSTest, on the ground in open fields. Eggs, four or five, grayish white, speckled 

 with dusky and brown. 



DOVES— MOURNING DOVE. 



Besides the species I have referred to there are many others assisting us as weed 

 destroyers, amongst them the Mourning Dove. This is the only bird I know that 

 feeds exclusively on seeds, and while it may possibly at times consume a little grain, 

 yet its services in keeping down some of our most noxious weeds will amply pay for 

 what it takes, unless perhaps it should become too abundant in the country, a condi- 

 tion not likely to happen in these days of breech-loaders, etc. I have on several 

 occasions shot these doves in the autumn, and on picking them up found their crops 

 so full of weed seeds that they burst on striking the ground. In several cases I 

 noticed that the bulk of the food contained in the crop consisted of seeds of the bind- 

 weed, a plant that becomes very injurious when established on cultivated land. 



Description. 



Adult male. Upper parts grayish olive; forehead vinaceous; crown bluish slate 

 color ; sides of the neck with brilliant metallic reflections of purple, green and bluish ; 

 a small black mark below the ear and several others on the wing coverts and scapu- 

 lars; middle tail feathers like back; the others slaty blue for the basal half, then 

 crossed with a black bar, then white ; breast vinaceous ; below creamy buff. 



Adult female. Similar but duller, less iridescence; breast and forehead grayish 

 brown. 



L., 11.80; W., 5.75; T., 5.50. 



Nest, on a low tree, or overgrown fence. Eggs, two, pure white. 



GAME BIRDS. 



Of our game birds the only tv/o that are of economic importance as insect or weed 

 destroyers are the Ruffed Grouse, commonly called " Partridge," and the Quail or 

 "Bob White." 



The Ruffed Grouse sometimes visits the edges of cultivated fields lying next to 

 woodlands, and there feeds upon weed seeds to a limited extent, but as a grasshopper 

 destroyer this bird is of considerable value. 



