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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



picious, however, and on being approached 

 takes flight with loutl cries. It is noisy 

 and restless, but fortunately most of its 

 activities result in benefit to man. The 

 food is of the same general nature as 

 that of the upland plover, but is more 

 varied. The killdeer feeds upon beetles, 

 grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, bugs, 

 caddis flies, dragon flies, centipedes, spi- 

 ders, ticks, oyster worms, earthworms, 

 snails, crabs and other rrustacea. Among 

 the beetles consumed are such pests as 

 the alfalfa weevil, cotton-boll weevil, 

 clover-root weevil, clover-leaf weevil, pine 

 weevil, billbugs, white grubs, wireworms, 

 and leaf beetles. The bird also devours 

 cotton worms, cotton cutworms, horse- 

 flies, mosquitoes, cattle ticks, and craw- 

 fish. One stomach contained hundreds of 

 larvae of the saltmarsh mosquito, one of 

 the most troublesome species. The kill- 

 deer preys extensively upon insects that 

 are annoying to man and injurious to his 

 stock and crops, and this should be 

 enough to remove it from the list of 

 game birds and insure its protection. 



Upland PIOTer 



Baitramia loiigicaiida 



Length, 12 Inches. The only plainly 

 colored shorebird which occurs east of 

 the plains and inhabits exclusively dry 

 fields and hillsides. 



Range 



Breeds from Oregon, Utah, Oklahoma, 

 Indiana and Virginia, north to Alaska; 

 winters in South America. 



Haliifs and Economic Status 



This, the most terrestrial of our waders, 

 is shy and wary, but it has the one weak- 

 ness of not fearing men on horseback 

 or in a vehicle. One of these methods 

 of approach, therefore, is nearly always 

 used by the sportsman, and. since the 

 bird is highly prized as a table delicacy, 

 it has been hunted to the verge of exter- 

 mination. As the upland plover is strictly 

 beneficial, it should no longer be classed 

 as a game bird and allowed to be shot. 

 Ninety-seven per cent of the food of this 

 species consists of animal forms, chiefly 

 of injurious and neutral species. The 

 vegetable food is mainly weed seeds. Al- 



most half of the total subsistence is made 

 up of grasshoppers, crickets and weevils. 

 Among the weevils eaten are the cotton- 

 boll weevil, greater and lesser clover-leaf 

 weevils, cowpea weevils, and billbugs. 

 This bird devours also leaf beetles, wire 

 worms, white grubs, army worms, cotton 

 worms, cotton cutworms, sawfly larvae, 

 horseflies, and cattle ticks. In brief, it 

 injures no crop, but consumes a host of 

 the worst enemies of agriculture. 



Black Tern 



Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis 

 Length, 10 inches. In autumn occurs 

 as a migrant on the east coast of the 

 United States, and then is in white and 

 gray plumage. During the breeding sea- 

 son it is confined to the interior, is chiefly 

 black, and is the only dark tern occurring 

 inland. 



Range 



Breeds from California. Colorado, Mis- 

 souri, and Ohio, north to Central Canada; 

 winters from Mexico to South America; 

 migrant in the Eastern United States. 



Habits and Economic Status 



This tern, unlike most of its relatives, 

 passes much of its life on fresh-water 

 lakes and marshes of the interior. Its 

 nests are placed among the tules and 

 weeds, on floating vegetation, or on musk- 

 rat houses. It lays from two to four 

 eggs. Its food is more varied than that 

 of any other tern. So far as known it 

 preys upon no food fishes, but feeds ex- 

 tensively upon such enemies of fish as 

 dragon fly nymphs, fish-eating beetles, and 

 crawfishes. Unlike most of its family, it 

 devours a great variety of insects, many 

 of which it catches as it fiies. Dragon 

 flies. May flies, grasshoppers, predaceous 

 diving beetles, scarabaeid beetles, leaf 

 beetles, gnats, and other flies are the 

 principal kinds preyed upon. Fishes of 

 little economic value, chiefly minnows 

 and mummichogs, were found to compose 

 only a little more than 19 per cent of the 

 contents of 145 stomachs. The great con- 

 sumption of insects by the black tern 

 places it among the beneficial species 

 worthy of protection. 



