30 



times destructive to his crops or trees; but the farmer who takes 

 advantage of the laws enacted for the prevention of trespass, the 

 protection of crops and the conservation of game and birds, may 

 thereby add to his prosperity as well as to his pleasure in life, and by 

 fostering the increase of fish, game and birds he may make life more 

 attractive to his boys, and thus help to keep them on the farm. This 

 paper will be devoted mainly to the material advantages that the 

 farmer may derive from the protection of wild game, and particularly 

 game birds. 



Economic Value of Game Birds. 



High among the valuable destroyers of insects and weeds we must 

 rank the bob-white, commonly known in New England as the quail. 

 This bird has not only an esthetic value, by reason of its bright, lively 

 presence and its cheery call, but it is also one of the chief feathered 

 helpers in field and garden. 



Dr. Judd of the Bureau of Biological Survey gives some interesting 

 records obtained by a study of its food. 1 



The contents of the stomachs of 801 bob-whites were examined by 

 the experts of the survey; over 50 per cent of the food consisted of 

 seeds, the bulk of this being weed seeds. One bird had in its stomach 

 1,000 seeds of rag weed; another had eaten no less than 5,000 seeds of 

 the troublesome pigeon grass. As each bird eats two or more meals a 

 day of this character during the season when weed seeds may be found, 

 a few flocks of such birds might do much to limit the production 

 of weeds on any farm. Dr. Judd estimates that the bob-whites of 

 Virginia consume 573 tons of weed seeds between September 1 and 

 April 30. Examining the insect food of this bird, he finds that 

 many of the most important insect pests of the United States are 

 eaten in quantities. Cucumber beetles, bean leaf beetles, May beetles, 

 click beetles and their progeny the wireworms, weevils, among them 

 the notorious Mexican cotton boll weevil, potato beetles, spinach 

 flea beetles, grape vine beetles, corn bill bugs, chinch bugs, cut-worms, 

 cotton worms, boll worms, southern tobacco worms, army worms, gar- 

 den caterpillars, grasshoppers, locusts and ants are found in its bill of 

 fare. It is one of the few birds that are very destructive to the Colo- 

 rado potato beetle and the chinch bug. Without question the bob- 

 white or quail is one of the birds that the farmer should strive to 

 protect. The ruffed grouse, the heath hen, the wild turkey, the in- 

 troduced pheasants, the woodcock and the snipe, — all have a greater 

 or less value as insect destro} r ers, and most of these birds feed upon 

 the seeds of weeds. 



Wild ducks may be of great service during any outbreak of insect 



- in the fields. The}- are destructive to grasshoppers, locusts and 



army worms. Most of the non-game birds of the farm are particularly 



1 Judd, Sylvester D. The Economic Value of the Bob-white. Year Book, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, 1903, pp. 193-204. 



