136 



CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME. 



Considering the destruction of all fish 

 and of the food for fish, such as Crustacea, 

 crabs, etc., and the destruction of earth- 

 worms, cai'nivorous beetles, and cereals, 

 by gulls as injurious and that the feeding 

 habits of gulls are beneficial in so far as 

 they destroy echinoderms in the sea 

 and on the land, wireworms, injurious 

 beetles and insects, and on occasions re- 

 move garbage, the investigation shows but 

 fifty-three points in favor of gulls and 

 454 points against them. All of the gulls 

 examined were taken on the sea coast. 

 If some of them had been taken on the 

 land a different result would have been ob- 

 tained. The board in charge of the work 

 has decided to continue the investigation 

 and to devote particular attention to the 

 land feeding gulls in the district, in order 

 to investigate whether the harm done to 

 fish and fish foods was counterbalanced 

 by the benefits derived by the agricul- 

 turists. 



DUCKS EAT OYSTERS IN 

 WASHINGTON. 



The United States Biological Survey 

 has just completed an investigation into 

 the depredations of ducks in the oyster 

 beds of Washington and Oregon. Mr. W. 

 L. McAtee, of the economic division of 

 the survey, was in charge of this woi-k. 

 He reports that greater scaup ducks 

 (bluebills) and white-winged scoters 

 were actually causing damage by eating 

 oysters on Oyster Bay, Washington. In 

 other places damage was reported as 

 negligible. The amount of damage, how- 

 ever, so the investigation showed, is to 

 be reckoned as a few thousand dollars 

 annually, rather than hundreds of thou- 

 sands of dollars as reported by the oyster 

 men. 



Stomach examination showed that 

 scaups took oysters an inch and a quarter 

 in diameter and scoters some slightly 

 over two inches. The only immediate rem- 

 edy being used is to hire a man to shoot 

 the ducks and frighten them away from 

 the oyster beds. 



This investigation, like many another 

 one, has shown that the men concerned 

 always exaggerate depredations by birds. 

 Depredations such as these are more 

 likely to decrease rather than increase, 

 for the duck population is waning rapidly. 

 Geese have now become so scarce in the 



Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys that 

 practically no complaint is heard of their 

 depredations in grain fields, whereas 

 formerly, when more numerous, men were 

 hii'ed to frighten them from the fields. 



WHY PROTECT THE SEA GULL? 



Fishermen continually censure the sea 

 gull for destroying many fish and food 

 which would otherwise be eaten by fish. 

 The commuter, also, as he watches the 

 never ceasing line of gulls follow the 

 ferries back and forth, wonders of what 

 use these soaring hoards can be. Their 

 value as scavengers is certainly evident 

 to everyone, but these birds of the sea 

 have also a value to the agriculturist. 

 We recently received a report from a 

 well known ornithologist, to the effect 

 that near Elmhurst, Alameda County, 

 hundreds of gulls were seen feeding in a 

 recently ploughed field and following the 

 farmer as he ploughed. The particular 

 species so benefiting the agriculturist is 

 usually either the California gull or the 

 ring-billed gull. The former was notice- 

 ably abundant on San Francisco Bay 

 during the month of January, 1915, when 

 the above observation was made. 



ENGLISH INVESTIGATOR DEFENDS 

 THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



That black-listed pest of the farmer 

 and fruit grower, the English sparrow, is 

 now being found to perform some service 

 as an insect destroyer during the nesting 

 season. The results of stomach examina- 

 tions of nestling English sparrows show 

 that the food consumption of a hundred 

 nestling birds from fruit growing dis- 

 tricts in England is nearly two thousand 

 insects in a single day, and that the birds 

 in suburban districts need about one third 

 of that quantity. Excepting for a few 

 spiders and earthworms the whole of the 

 food was found to consist of injurious 

 insects. It is probably safe to say, also, 

 that during the whole of the nesting 

 period the parent bird feeds upon food 

 similar to that which is fed the nestling. 



The following conclusions of Mr. Col- 

 linge (Journ. Bd. Agri., 21, 1-6) are of 

 interest : "In spite of all that has been 

 written with reference to the depreda- 

 tions of the house sparrow, we do not 

 yet possess tliat completeness of knowl- 

 edge that justifies us in condemning it as 



