TESTIMONY FOR THE BIRDS. 



A FARMER'S boy in Ohio, observing a small flock of 

 quails in his father's cornfield, resolved to watch their 

 motions. They pursued a regular course in their forag- 

 ing, beginning 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 this course until they had explored the 

 greater part of the field. The lad, suspecting them of 

 pulling up the corn, shot one of them and examined the 

 ground. In the whole space over which they had trav- 

 elled 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 cutworm, twenty-one striped vine-bugs, and one hun- 

 dred chinch-bugs, but not a single kernel of corn. As 

 the quail is a granivorous bird in winter, this fact proves 

 that even those birds that are able to subsist upon seeds 

 prefer insects and grubs when they have their choice. 



Mr. Roberts, a farmer who resided in Colesville, Ohio, 

 was invited by a neighbor to assist him in killing some 

 yellow-birds which, as he thought, were destroying his 

 wheat. Mr. Roberts, not believing the birds guilty of 

 any such mischief, was inclined to protect them. To 

 satisfy his curiosity, however, he killed one of the yellow- 

 birds, and found, upon opening its crop, that instead of 

 wheat the bird had devoured the weevil, the greatest de- 

 stroyer of wheat. He found in the bird's crop as many 

 as two hundred weevils and but four grains of wheat; 



