TABLE ir. 



310 



THE EIGHTEEN MOST IMPORTANT NATIVE BIRDS, 

 INDIANA LINE TO QUINCY. 



The Vegetable Covering of the Soil. 



As the area traversed on this trip was almost wholly under 

 cultivation, the relation of these birds to the vegetable cover- 

 ing of the soil was virtually their relation to the agricultural 

 and horticultural crops of central Illinois in autumn — almost 

 entirely to the former, since the horticultural area is compara- 

 tively in.signiticant in this part of the state. Nearly all this 

 surface was in fields of ripe corn, the stalks standing in some 

 helds and in others cut and shocked; in blue-grass pastures; 

 in meadows of timothy, clover, and millet, or timothy and clo- 

 ver mixed; in fields of stubble, mostly after a crop of oats; in 

 fields of young wheat; in ground freshly plowed, mainly as 

 a preparation for wheat; and in orchards, almost all of ap- 

 ple. Plowing for wheat was in progress when the trip began, 

 and fields of young wheat were reported in increasing numbers 

 after October 1. Some of the later plowing was doubtless done 

 for corn. 



