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waste. The damage done to seed sown broadcast for the ensuing 

 crop may be considered of more importance, and which, combined 

 with the ravages of other birds, causes some ill-will against them. 

 Yet it must be taken into account that if the weed seeds that arc 

 eaten together Avith the grain, were not destroyed, but allowed to 

 grow, they would choke out far more plants than there were 

 grain seeds eaten, stunting many others. 



Ignorance of the habits of birds and other animals has oticu 

 led to an unjust criticism. This has been shown time and again, 

 most noticeably, perhaps, in the case of hawks and owls, which 

 at one time were all considered detrimental, owing to the fact 

 that they occasionally helped themselves to chickens, other barn- 

 yard fowls, and especially game birds. Yet, as has been shown 

 most conclusively by Dr. A. K. Fisher in his excellent work on 

 "The Haw^ks and Owls of the United States in their relation to 

 Agriculture." with three exceptions, the Sharp-shinned, Cooper's 

 and Gross Hawk, none of our hawks and owls are to be, and but 

 few may be, condemned, while many are far more beneficial than 

 injurious. By some industrious farmers the doves are accused 

 of being the cause of weed-seed distribution and on this account 

 are shot down when found foraging in the grain fields where 

 the farmer has spent much time in improving the land. In 

 these cases the farmers believe that the weed seeds are eaten and 

 that they pass through the digestive organs of a dove without 

 any detrimental effect upon the life of the seed. Although this 

 is true in many other birds, for example the ]\Iocking bird, it can 

 by no means be said of doves. E. T. Lovell, of Crowley, says: 

 ' ' The doves visit the rice fields by the hundreds, if not thousands, 

 in the fall, yet but few complaints are made against them for 

 eating rice. The farmers do, however, complain about their scat- 

 tering the seeds of the indigo weed (a great nuisance in the rice 

 fields) which they think is done by the dropping of the seeds with 

 the excretum after having passed through the body intact. On 

 this account they are often shot and driven from the fields."' 



This practice of shooting doves for an unjust cause should 

 be. and undoubtedly Avould be. stopped by any reasonable farmer 

 when the facts in the case are known. Food in the shape of 

 grains and seeds is swallowed whole. , It remains for some time in 

 the crop, which, as stated before, is very capacious, and is there 

 softened somewhat by digestive fluids; it then passes to the giz- 

 zard, Avhich is large and very powerful. In it is found a certain 



