53 



SERVICES RENDERED BY SHORE BIRDS, MARSH BIRDS, WATER- 

 FOWL AND SEA BIRDS. 



The usefulness of snipes, woodcocks, sandpipers, plovers, 

 curlews and other shore birds and marsh birds as insect de- 

 stroyers is not generally appreciated. Many species feed 

 voraciously on marsh and field insects, such as cutworms, grass- 



Killdeer plover, one of the most useful birds of the field. 



hoppers, locusts, wireworms and grubs. In their spring migra- 

 tions through the Mississippi valley region, shore birds destroy 

 countless hordes of grass-eating and crop-destroying insects. 

 Species that breed inland in agricultural regions, such as the 

 killdeer, mountain plover, upland plover, spotted sandpiper and 

 long-billed curlew, are so useful throughout the year that they 

 should be protected by law perpetually for the benefit of agri- 

 culture. The killdeer and the upland plover also befriend cattle 

 by devouring the North American fever tick. 



Professor Aughey found that 23 species among the shore birds 

 and 10 species of wild-fowl were actively destroying locusts and 

 other insects in Nebraska, and Mr. W. L. McAtee finds that 

 grasshoppers are a staple food of many shore birds. 1 Mr. H. W. 

 Tinkham of Touisset, Massachusetts, watched six spotted sand- 

 pipers preying on cutworms and cabbage worms. The diet of 

 shore birds includes such pests as army worms, cutworms, boll 

 weevils, clover-root curculios, clover-leaf weevils, rice weevils, 



* McAtee, W. L.: Bureau of Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Circular No. 79, 1911, p. 4. 



