THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF BIRDS. 23 



fishes (60). Five pelicans from Nebraska all contained insects, from 21 to 

 67 each, with crayfish, fish and frogs (61). 



ANSERES- Ducks, Geese and Swans 



Wild ducks, geese and swans are almost altogether harmless, and pro- 

 vide recreation for an army of sportsmen. As a source of food they cannot 

 under present conditions be deemed of great importance, as the cost of 

 obtaining them far exceeds their value as food. Most of the species feed to 

 a great extent upon aquatic plants, though probably all take some aquatic 

 invertebrates, such as snails, crustaceans, etc., and some species, such as the 

 mergansers, feed largely on small fishes (62). During grasshopper outbreaks 

 domestic ducks have been found with from 200 to 250 grasshoppers in their 

 stomachs; young mallards have been seen "stuffing themselves with May- 

 flies;" young wood ducks caught feeding on Mayflies and locusts; one duck 

 in Louisiana in February contained 72,000 seeds; and the stomach of a 

 young mallard was filled with grasshoppers (63). Aughey examined the 

 stomachs of 8 snow geese, 9 Canada geese, 10 mallards, 7 pintails, 9 green- 

 winged teal, 1 blue-winged teal, 1 shoveller, 9 wood ducks, 4 buffleheads and 1 

 ruddy duck, all of which contained insects, usually in large numbers, 

 chiefly locusts, the remainder of the food consisting of mollusks and a little 

 vegetation (64). Ducks have rapidly decreased in numbers during the last 

 half century, and the wood duck, which possesses the finest plumage of all 

 American ducks, is almost extinct (65). 



ODONTOGLOSSAE- Flamingoes 



Flamingoes do not visit our region, and have little economic importance, 

 but should be preserved from the plume hunters in southern waters, on 

 account of their unique beauty. 



HERODIONES-Herons, Storks, Bitterns, Ibises, Etc. 



The herons have been much persecuted because of the widespread belief 

 that they live almost entirely upon fish, especially the great blue heron, which 

 in Colorado is usually miscalled the sandhill crane. The fishes taken by 

 herons are not as a rule very useful to the human race. If harm is done 

 by these birds, it is in the destruction of snakes, rather than fish, and iu 

 this respect they do much good in the South by destroying the young 

 moccasins. Chas. W. Smiley (in Bien. Rept. Fish Com. Colo., 1884) reports 

 that a night heron shot at the Washington carp ponds contained heads of 78 

 young carp, which would naturally be the case where young fishes are so 

 easily obtained as in the ponds of a hatchery. 



Judd found only fish in the stomachs of 10 adult and 10 young 

 black-crowned night herons, but found 20 dragonflies in 1 green heron, and 

 praises the white egret as a destroyer of crayfish in Louisiana, where this 



(ttlM tiaynard, The Wilson Bulletin, Vol. XXIV, p. 169. 



(61) Aughey, 1st Rept. TJ. S. Entom. Com. App., II, p. 60. 



(62) Judd, U. S. Biol. Surv.. Bull. 17, pp. 53, 80-81. McAtee. W. L.. Three 

 Important Wild Duck Foods, TJ. S. Biol. Surv., Circular No. 81. 



(63) Judd, U S. Dept. Agr'c., Yearbook for 1900, p. 435. Fisher, North American 

 Fauna, No. 7, p. 15. Farmers' Bull. No. 513, p. 5. Bryant, Univ. Call., Pub. Zool., 

 Vol. XI, No. 1, pp. 12-13 



(64) Aughey, First Rept. TJ. S. Entom. Com., App. II, pp. 57-60. 



(65) Fisher, U. S. Dept. Agric., Yearbook for 1901, pp. 447-458. 



