10 The Bulletin. 



the agricultural interests of the country, and Bobwhite is one of their 

 most deadly enemies. The boll weevil came over the border into the 

 United States in IS!) I and was soon costing us $20,000,000 a year. 

 The government collectors have found many partridges whose crops 

 were filled with these weevils, which are secured late in the season 

 when the weevil leaves the cotton and takes refuge in the leaves and 

 rubbish on I lie ground. 



These birds also eat the striped cucumber beetle that does such 

 havoc t«> cucumbers, squashes, and other vegetables. In short, the 

 crops and gizzards examined in great numbers in the government 

 laboratories have yielded fifty-seven kinds of beetles, twenty-seven 

 varieties of bugs, nine grasshoppers and locusts, and thirteen different 

 sorts of caterpillars, besides ants, flies, wasps, and spiders. 



lint the good work of the Bobwhite does not end with the summer. 

 Eighty-five different weed seeds have been found to make up in part 

 his bill of fare. Crops have been found packed with rag-weed seeds 

 and as many as one thousand seeds of the crab-grass have been taken 

 from one bird. A specimen shot on Christmas day of 1901 at 

 Kinsale, Virginia, contained about 10,000 pig-weed seeds. In Bul- 

 letin 21 of the Bureau of Biological Survey we read: "It is reason- 

 able to suppose that in the States of Virginia and North Carolina 

 from September 1 to April 30 there are four Bobwhites to each square 

 mile of land, or 354,820 in the two States. The crop of each bird 

 holds half an ounce of seed and is filled twice a day. Since at each 

 of the two daily meals weed seeds constitute at least half the contents 

 of the crop, or one-fourth of an ounce, a half-ounce daily is consumed 

 by each bird. On this basis, the total consumption of weed seeds by 

 Bobwhites from September 1 to April 30 in Virginia and North 

 Carolina amounts to 1,341 tons." 



The above facts and figures may well be used in argument to sub- 

 stantiate the claim by many people that the time has arrived when 

 our beloved Partridge is of far more value to us while living than 

 after he is dead. 



NioiiTiiAWK : "Bullbat": (Chordcilcs Yivginianas). 



Male. — Upper parts black, with markings of white ami buff. Wing crossed 

 by broad white bars; tail black or nearly so, with broken bars of buff, with 

 white band at end on all but middle feathers; white throat; chin and breast 

 black ; belly barred with black and white. 



Female. — No white on tail and washed with huff below. 



Length. — Ten inches; expanse of wings, 23 inches. 



Range. —Eastern North America ; breeds from the Gulf States to Labrador; 

 winters in South America. 



Nest. — -On the bare ground in fields or open woods, sometimes on tlat-topped 

 houses in cities. Eggs heavily spotted and blotched, closely resembling the 

 ground; two in number. 



The Goatsucker Family is represented in North Carolina by three 

 distinct species. These are the Chuck-will's Widow, which is con- 



