XATURE-STUDY AXD THE nOBWJI ITi: 



67 



\\\ tliis iiicthod Mrs. Nice lias added ()i weed sccd> U) the 

 68 species which the Department of Agriculture had previously 



discovered by stomach 

 examination. Among 

 the additions are such 

 pests as "pusly", Canada 

 and bull thistle, dodder, 

 firewe^d, wild carrot, 

 ironweed, plantain, mul- 

 lein, ox-eye and yellow 

 daisy, burdock, and 

 witch grass. 



The bobwhite has 

 been discovered to eat 

 135 different kinds of 

 insects, many of them 

 the most injurious that 

 we have; the potato 

 beetle — which few other 

 birds eat — cucumber 

 beetle, cut worms, army 

 worm, wire worms, 

 chinch bugs, cotton boll 

 worm, and cotton boll 

 weevil. Mrs. Nice's ob- 

 servations have added a 

 few specially significant 

 CHUMS species to the govern- 



ment lists, among them mosquitoes, typhoid and stable flies, 

 (larvae, pupae and adults), squash bugs, plant lice of many 

 species, moths, cabbage butterfly, peach-tree borer, codling 

 moth, carpet-beetle, clothes moths, and the Hessian fly. 



These studies, which constitute the most careful and com- 

 plete investigation ever made of the food of any bird, have en- 

 abled Mrs. Nice to estimate that a bobwhite hen will eat an 

 average of 75,000 insects and 5.000,000 weed seeds in a year — 

 al)out yy2 pounds of insects and 10 pounds of weed seed. The pa- 

 per, soon to be published in full, will constitute the most com- 

 plete evidence that, the bird, until the country is well stocked, 

 is worth one hundred fold more alive and at work than dead. 

 Three years ago, I was told of a farmer who was asked by some 



