OTHER ANIMALS 637 



spring and begin their devastations on the opening foliage. Recent- 

 ly it has been learned that hundreds and thousands of these nests are 

 torn open in winter and the young eaten, and the blue jay has ac- 

 tually been seen doing this. The blue jay will earn the title of bene- 

 factor indeed should he be able to contribute materially toward a 

 reduction of this pest, which not only threatens destruction alike to 

 village shade trees and country forest, but seriously afflicts humanity 

 by poisoning the flesh with its barbed hairs, which are scattered 

 broadcast by the wind. 



Grouse and Quail. Grouse and quail are largely vegetarian, 

 though the several species have enviable records as successful hunters 

 of insects. The habit of eating the buds of fruit trees in spring is 

 sometimes cited against our ruffed grouse as a serious fault, but 

 usually trees are not harmed by the process. 



The value of all the members of the grouse family, as of water- 

 fowl and waders, for food is great and is constantly increasing as the 

 birds diminish in numbers. Quail have always been favorite objects 

 of pursuit by sportsmen, and by preserving the quail on a large farm, 

 or on a number of adjoining farms, and asking a fair fee from sports- 

 men for the privilege of snooting, a considerable revenue may be 

 derived, and it is not unlikely that the game on a large tract of, say, 

 several hundred acres may be made to yield a revenue as large as that 

 from a good-sized poultry yard, or even larger. However, perhaps 

 the most valuable service to the farmer rendered by bobwhite is the 

 destruction of the seeds of weeds, although the total number of in- 

 sects eaten in a year by a covey on the farm is enormous, and it is 

 questionable if the value of game birds to the farmer, especially the 

 quail, as weed and insect destroyers be not greater than their value as 

 a source of revenue from sportsmen or as food. It is pretty safe to 

 assert that, except where grouse and quail are so numerous that a cer- 

 tain percentage of the increase can be spared, the farmer can not af- 

 ford to sacrifice them to sport or to the market. 



Sparrow Family. The finch, or sparrow, family is very im- 

 portant to the agriculturist. The group is large, and in North Amer- 

 ica comprises more than a seventh of all the birds. Most of them are 

 small and plainly colored; some are gregarious, and most are mi- 

 gratory, leaving the United States in winter. Their chief value to 

 the farmer lies in the fact that the majority of them are indefatigable 

 in their search for seeds of w r eeds, which indeed constitute a large 

 part of their fare the year round. Practically all of the food of at 

 least one of them the tree sparrow consists of seed. If we es- 

 timate that a single tree sparrow eats a quarter of an ounce of weed 

 seed daily and stomach examinations by Professor Beal show that, 

 this is a fair estimate this species in a State the size of Iowa con- 

 sumes more than 800 tons of seed annually. And there are many 

 other sparrows whose appetite for weed seed falls little short of that of 

 the tree sparrow. 



As every farmer knows, the cost of farming is largely aug- 

 mented by the expense of fighting weeds, the seeds of many of which, 

 especially of certain noxious kinds are very numerous and are ca~ 



