June, '10] >;it'E : FOOD OF BOBWHITE 397 



"If we were wise enough as a people to protect and increase 

 our weed-destroying and insectivorous birds, they should largely 

 control these enemies of our crops. Bobwhites, if we only had enough 

 of them, ought to save us more than half of our $17,000,000 weed 

 damage and of our billion dollar insect tax." 



C. F. Hodge. 



The experiments have been carried on since September, 1907, in 

 "Worcester, Mass., with birds that had been under domestication 

 three and four generations. The original stock came from Kansas, 

 Alabama and South Carolina. Eighteen birds of the third genera- 

 tion were used, chiefly for weed tests ; some were hatched under hens, 

 some in an incubator; all were raised in brooders. A special study 

 was made in 1908 of one bob white of the next generation. 



Weed Seeds 



Dr. Sylvester Judd of the Bureau of Biological Survey has made a 

 careful study of the food of the Bobwhite by analysis of stomach con- 

 tents. In his bulletin "The Bobwhite and Other Quails of the United 

 States in their Economic Relations" he says: 



"The bobwhite is preeminently a seed eater, 52.83 per cent of its 

 food for the year consisting of seeds. The bulk of these are the seeds 

 of plants belonging to the general category of weeds. The food of 

 no other bird with which the writer is acquainted is so varied." (6) 



"The laboratory work to determine the different kinds of food and 

 ' their proportions has included examination of crops and gizzards 

 from 918 birds. This material was collected from 21 States, Canada, 

 the District of Columbia, and Mexico, but chiefly from New York, 

 Maryland, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kan- 

 sas, and Texas. Stomachs were obtained each month of the year, but 

 unfortunately few were collected in the breeding season. Laboratory' 

 work included also feeding experiments with three pairs of captive 

 bobwhites obtained from Kansas." (7) 



In my experiments the weeds or merely the seeds were put into 

 the cages, to see whether the birds would eat them. By this means 61 

 weeds were added, making 129. Dr. Judd's contributions to the fol- 

 lowing list are starred. 



WEED SEEDS EATEN BY BOBWHITE 



*Barbed panicum Panicum harhatum. 



♦Barnyard grass, barn grass, cocks- 

 foot, water grass Panicum crusgaUL 



♦Bastard pennyroyal TricJiostema dichotomum. 



