EASTERN BOB WHITE 19 



late in fall and in winter, and there were no stomachs of young birds 

 examined. Mr. Handley's report is based on the examination of 

 the food of 1,625 adult and 42 young bobwhites; it covers 53 pages 

 and is far too voluminous and too elaborate for me even to attempt 

 to quote from it. It should be carefully studied. A condensed table 

 gives the monthly and yearly percentages of the various items in the 

 food. The total yearly averages show 85.59 per cent of vegetable 

 and 14.41 per cent of animal food. The principal items in the 

 vegetable food are: Fruits, 19.41; legumes, 15.17; mast, 13.42; grass 

 seeds, 10.65; and miscellaneous seeds, 10.24 per cent; and in the 

 animal food: Orthoptera, 7.43; Coleoptera, 2.98; Hemiptera, 1.96; 

 and other insects, 1.06 per cent. For all the interesting details the 

 reader is referred to this exhaustive report. 



E. L. Moseley (1928) gives a striking illustration of the value of 

 bobwhites as destroyers of potato beetles in Ohio, where these birds 

 have increased enormously under 10 years of rigid protection. He 

 says: 



For several years past potatoes have been raised successfully on many farms 

 in Ohio without spraying for beetles, or taking any measures to combat the 

 insects. In fact many patches have been practically free from the " bugs." 

 Bob-whites have been observed to spend much of the time among the potato 

 vines. They have been seen to follow a row, picking off the potato beetles. 

 When the potato patch was located near woodland there was no trouble with 

 the beetles ; but when the patch was near the highway or buildings, even on 

 the same farm, the insects were troublesome. On farms where the Bob White 

 found nesting sites and protection, the potato vines, if not too near the buildings, 

 were kept free from the insects. A patch of potatoes surrounded by open 

 fields, without bushes, tall weeds, or crops that might shelter the Bob White, 

 was likely to be infested with beetles. A farmer living eight miles south of 

 Defiance raised about fifty Bob Whites on his place. During the two years that 

 these birds were there he had no trouble with insects on either potatoes or cab- 

 bage. The following autumn a number of the birds were killed by hunters, while 

 others were frightened away. The next summer the potato beetles were back 

 in numbers. The farmer is again raising Bob Whites and protecting them from 

 hunters. 



Mrs. Margaret M. Nice (1910) found that a captive bobwhite ate 

 568 mosquitoes in two hours, another 5,000 plant lice in a day, and 

 another 1,000 grasshoppers and 532 other insects in a day; also that 

 it ate from 600 to 30,000 weed seeds each day, according to the size of 

 the seeds and the bird's capacity. I can not give here a complete list 

 of the food of the bobwhite, as given by Doctor Judd (1905), but a 

 few of the most important seeds are those of various grasses, rushes, 

 sedges, sorrel, smartweed, bindweed, duckweed , lupine, clover, 

 vetches, spurges, maples, ashes, oaks, pines, violets, morning-glory, 

 ragweed, sunflower, beggarticks, and foxtail and witch grass. 

 Among the fruits are waxmyrtle, barberry, bayberry, mulberry, 



