UTILITY OF BIRDS. 55 



they were pulling up the corn, fired into the flock, killing one 

 of them, and then proceeded to examine the ground. In the 

 whole space over which they had travelled, he found but one 

 stalk of corn disturbed ; this was nearly scratched out of the 

 ground, but the kernel still adhered to it. In the craw of the 

 quail he found one cutworm, twenty-one striped vine-bugs, and 

 one hundred chinch-bugs ; but not a single kernel of corn. 

 This is an important fact ; for as the quail is a granivorous bird 

 during a great part of the year, it proves that the usefulness of 

 birds, as destroyers of insects, is not confined to the insectivorous 

 tribes. 



Mr. Roberts, a farmer who resided in Colesville, Ohio, 

 communicated an important fact to one of the papers of that 

 State. A neighbor asked his assistance in killing some yellow- 

 birds wliich the farmers accused of destroying their wheat. 

 Mr. Roberts declined, because he did not believe their accusa- 

 tions, and was inclined to cherisii and protect the birds, as the 

 farmer's friends. Out of curiosity, however, he killed one of 

 the yellow-birds, and opened its crop, when he found that 

 instead of the ivheat, the bird had devoured the weevil, which is 

 the great destroyer of wheat ! He found as many as two 

 hundred weevils in the bird's crop, and but four grains of 

 wheat ; and as each of these contained a weevil, they were 

 undoubtedly eaten for the sake of the insect within them. 

 The jealousy of the Ohio farmers was prompting them, in this 

 case, to destroy a race of birds that were constantly performing 

 for them an incalculable service. 



By Southern farmers, the kildeer, a sort of plover, is supposed 

 to destroy young turnips. A writer in the " Southern Planter," 

 alluding to this'notion, pronounces the kildeer the true guardian 

 of the turnip-field, remarking: "I have several times dissected 

 the gizzards of kildeers — for they have no crops — to show their 

 destroyers that they contain no vegetable substance ; and 

 nothing, indeed, but the little bug so famous for destroying 

 young turnips and tobacco plants. These little hopping beetles 

 are a great nuisance in the land, and seem to be rapidly 

 increasing. The kildeers are their natural enemies, and 

 formerly collected in large numbers to fulfil the purposes of 

 their mission. I seldom, now-a-days, hear the kildccr's voice. 

 Let no man, henceforth, kill one, except to convince himself 



