THE PIGEONS. GROUSE, AND SHORE-BIRDS. 



223 



nuts, berries, and green leaves. Twenty-one quail taken 

 in Nebraska between May and October had all eaten seeds 

 and from thirty-one to forty-seven insects each. Of two 

 taken in New Hampshire in the winter when the ground was 

 covered with snow, and examined by us, one had eaten seven 

 oats, ten barberries, one poison-ivy seed, and some bits of 

 green leaf that were not determined ; the other had eaten 

 twenty-five oats, twelve barberries, seven small seeds, and 



THE BOB-WHITE OR QUAIL. 



nine leaves of white clover. The oats had evidently been 

 taken from horse droppings in the road near by. According 

 to the studies of the Department of Agriculture, " seeds of 

 rib-grass, tickfoil, and berries of nightshade are sometimes 

 eaten, and pigeon-grass and smartweed are frequently con- 

 sumed in large quantities. The amount of grain food in the 

 stomachs thus far examined is surprisingly small, while the 

 proportion of weed seed is astonishingly large, in some cases 



