MAMMALOGY AND ORNITHOLOGY. 255 



raised above the level of the rest." Nostrils arched over by an incumbent 

 thick, fleshy valve. Bill not longer than the head, obtuse anteriorly. Nails 

 broad, obtusely rounded." This order has been divided into several families, 

 which are more interesting to the naturalists than to the farmer. As they 

 have but little importance agriculturally speaking, and as my subject has been 

 already too extended, I shall dismiss them with but a few general remarks. 



The Culumbce (pigeons) are injurious in some districts, eminently so by their 

 ravages in the grain fields. Some species are gregarious, and their immense 

 flocks sweep through the rich fields of wheat with a destructiveness hardly 

 credible ; they have no redeeming traits, economically speaking, as they destroy 

 but very few insects, and the best use to which they can be put is to furnish 

 food to some of their former victims. 



The other indigenous rasores are of no importance on the farm with the ex- 

 ception of the quails or partridges [Perdicidce.) These birds, although a great 

 portion of their food consists of the various seeds, destroy immense numbers of 

 insects, chiefly Orthoptera. I think that I am safe in saying that three-fourths 

 of their food from May until October, consists of these insects and others, both 

 in the larvis and perfect forms. The following extract will serve to iilustrate 

 this fact : 



" A farmer's boy in Ohio, observing a small flock of quails in his father's cornfield, re- 

 solved to watch their motions. They pursued a very regular course iu their foraging, com- 

 mencing on one side of the field, taking about five rows, and following them uniformly to 

 the opposite end, returning in the same manner over the next five rows. They continued in 

 this course until they had explored the greater portion of the field. The la;^, suspicious that 

 they were pulling up the corn, fired into the flock, killing one of them, and then proceeded 

 to examine the ground. In the whole space over which they had travelled he found but one 

 stalk of corn disturbed. This was nearly scratched out of the ground, but the kernel still 

 adhered to it. In the craw of the quail he found one cut-worm, twenty one striped vine 

 bugs, and one hundred chinch-bugs, but not a single kernel of corn." 



This is but one instance of many on record, in which birds and animals 

 hitherto deemed injurious, were found on examination to be not only harmless 

 but positively beneficial. 



GRALLATORES (WADERS.) 



The birds of this order are of no great importance to agriculture ; some of 

 tliem are beneficial and others to a certain extent injurious. The characteris- 

 tics of these birds are their lengthened neck and legs adapted to wading in the 

 water, in or near which they procure their food. They are divided by modern 

 naturalists into the two great sub-orders. 



" Herediones. — Face or lores nvore or less naked, or else covered with feathers different 

 from those on the rest of the body, except in some Gruidcp.. Bill nearly as thick at the base 

 as the skull ; hind toe generally nearly on the same level with the anterior; young reared in 

 nests, and requiring to be fed by the parents. And Grallce, lore^s with feathers similar to 

 those on the rest of the lx)dy. Bill contracted at base, where it is usually smaller than the 

 skull ; hind toe generally elevated ; young running about at birth, and able to feed them- 

 selves." 



In the first of these sub-orders are included our cranes, herons, bitterns, 

 ibises, &;c. These birds, although subsisting partly upon insects, are generally 

 injurious, by destroying the smaller beneficial reptiles, (such as the toads, frogs, 

 and small snakes,) which with small fishes constitute the principal portion of 

 their food. They are not suificieutly numerous however in most districts to be 

 considered pests, and further observation may discover facts that will entitle 

 them to the forbearance, at least, of the farmer. 



In the Gralla: are placed the plovers, woodcocks, snipes, sandpipers, rails, or 

 moadow-hens, &c. Of these, the rails are the only directly beneficial bii'ds, as 

 they sxibsist almost entirely upon Ortlwpterons and other injurious insects. 

 The others feed upon worms (the woodcocks and snipes) and small shellfish 



