470 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



"A ring-necked pheasant's crop from Washington contained 8,000 

 seeds of chickweed and a dandelion head. More than 72,000 seeds have 

 been found in a single duck stomach taken in Louisiana in February."^ 



''But the birds which accomplish most as weed destroyers are the 

 score or more of native sparrows that flock to the w^eed patches in early 

 autumn and remain until late spring. During cold weather they require 

 an abundance of food to keep their bodies warm, and it is their habit to 

 keep their stomach and gullets heaping full. Often one of these birds 

 is found to have eaten 300 seeds of pigeon grass or 500 seeds of lamb 's- 



FiG. 97. — Branch of Spiny clot-bur, Xanthiuni spinosuni, show- 

 ing burs with characteristic hoolcs. A type of weed seed whicli is 

 spread by cattle and sheep. (Original.) 



quarter or pigweed. Because of their gregarious and terrestrial habits, 

 they are efficient consumers of seeds of ragweed,, pigeon grass, crab 

 grass, bindweed, purslane, smartweed, and pigweed. In short, these 

 birds are little weeders whose work is seldom noted, but always felt." 



"The value of agricultural crops in the United States in 1910 

 amounted to $8,926,000,000. If we estimate that the total consumption 

 of weed seed by the combined members of the sparrow family resulted 

 in a saving of only 1 per cent of the crops — not a violent assumption — 

 the sum saved to farmers by these birds in 1910 was $89,260,000."- 



^ 'Henshaw — Fifty Common Birds of Farm and Orchard. Farm Bui. 513. 



' =F. E. L. Beal, Birds of California in Relation to Fruit Industry. Parts 1 and 2, 

 U. S. Biol. Surv., Buls. 30 and 34. 



