312 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 3 



sects in this country as $795,100,000. (10) "The common schools of 

 the country- cost in 1902 the sum of $235,000,000, and all higher in- 

 stitutions of learning cost less than $50,000,000, making the total cost 

 of education in the United States considerably less than the farmers 

 lost from insect ravages. . . . Furthermore, the yearly losses 

 from insect ravages aggregate nearly twice as much as it costs to 

 maintain our army and navy ; more than twice the loss by fire ; twice 

 the capital invested in manufacturing agricultural implements; and 

 nearly three times the estimated value of the products of all the fruit 

 orchards, vineyards, and the small fruit farms in the country." (3) 

 Prof. H. T. Fernald, Massachusetts State Entomologist, says: "Esti- 

 mates of the annual loss by insects calculated at 18% are now con- 

 sidered as about correct, and this loss on the basis of the United 

 States government crop estimates for 1906 would be considerably 

 over a billion dollars each year." (2) 



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

 weed destroying insectivorous birds, thej^ 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. 



Summary 



The bobwhite is known to eat 129 different kinds of weed seeds. 



A single bird was found to eat as many as 12,000, 18,000 and 

 30,000 seeds of one kind of weed in a day. 



They eat 15 grams, or half an ounce, of weed seed daily through- 

 out the winter. 



The known list of insects eaten — 135 — includes many of the most 

 injurious species. 



A single bird ate at one meal 568 mosquitoes; another during a 

 day ate 1,350 flies; a third ate 5,000 plant lice, while still another 

 record is 1,532 insects, 1,000 of which were grasshoppers. 



Bobwhites eat from 12 to 24 grams of insects daily in the summer. 



In a study of the growth and feeding of one bobwhite, it was found 

 that in his third week he ate half of his weight of insects, in his 

 fourth week one third. In the sixth the addition of grain brought 

 it up to one half again. When adult they eat from one twelfth to 

 one sixth of their weight. 



An estimate of the average amount eaten by a bobwhite in a year 

 is 2,732 grams, or about 5 pounds, of insects, and 4,681 grams, or 

 about 934 pounds, of weed seeds, which are equivalent to 65,302 

 insects and 5,123,076 weed seeds. 



