22 NEBRASKA ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 



Especially is this true with respect to the Quail, Prairie Hen, Sharptailed 

 Grouse, and Wild Turkey, all of which are occupied most of the summer 

 months in capturing and destrojang- vast numbers of such insects as 

 are found on the prairies. Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, caterpillars, 

 and similar insects comprise the bulk of their insect food — forms that 

 are all among- the most numerous as well as destructive species. In 

 writing about these birds as insect destroyers Prof. Samuel Aughej^ 

 writes:* "I happened to b© in the Republican Valley, in southwestern 

 Nebraska, in August, 1874, when the locust invaded that region. Prairie 

 chickens and quails, that previous to their coming had a large number 

 of seeds In their stomachs, when dissected, seemed now for a time to 

 abandon all other kinds of food. At least from this onward for a 

 month little else than locusts were found in their stomachs. All the 

 birds seemed now to live solely on locusts for a while." In Avinter and 

 at other times of the year when insect life is scarce and diflficult to 

 obtain these birds feed more or less extensively'' upon seeds and other 

 kinds of vegetation. Some even enter cultivated grounds and seek 

 food that belongs to the farmer, thereby doing more or less direct in- 

 jury. The extent of such injury, of course, depends upon the number 

 of birds engaged in the depredations, and also on the time over which 

 it is allowed to extend. If corn and other grain is harvested at the 

 proper time, but little damage ensues; but if alloAved to remain in the 

 field throughout winter, much of the crop is liable to be taken b3' the 

 birds. 



Perhaps no other bird that frequents the farm pays higher prices for 

 the grain it eats than does the Quail. Living about the hedgerows, groves, 

 and ravines, where insect enemies gather and lurk during the greater 

 part of the year, this bird not only seizes large numbers of these en- 

 emies daily during the summer months when they are "abroad in the 

 land," but all winter through it scratches among the fallen leaves and 

 other rubbish that accumulates about its haunts seeking for hibernat- 

 ing insects of various kinds. Being a timid little creature, the Quail 

 seldom leaves cover to feed openlj^ in the fields, and therefore does but 

 little actual harm in the way of destroying grain. In fact it only takes 

 stray kernels that otherwise might be lost. This bird is one of the few 

 that feeds upon that unsavory insect, the chinch-bug; and the number 

 of this pest that occasionally are destroyed by it is really astonishing. 

 No farmer or fruit-grower should ever kill a quail himself nor allow 

 anyone else to hunt it on his premises. 



Our domestic fowls, save ducks and geese, from which so much direct 

 income is derived throughout the year, belong here. It would be folly on 

 my part to assert that they are useless to the farmer. Besides furnish- 

 ing eggs and meat for the table, they are great aids in keeping down 

 a variety of noxious insects during spring, summer and fall. 



The various species of Doves or Pigeons are not, as a rule, thoiight 



®See 1st Report U. S. Entomological Commissiou, p. 361. 



