THE EARTH'S BOUNTY 



form 50.78 per cent., and include those of 

 many different plants. 



The bulk of this seed diet consists of the 

 seeds of weeds. Fully sixty different weeds 

 are represented in the food, and constitute 

 more than a third of the food for the year as 

 a whole. Some idea of the value of the bird 

 as a weed destroyer may be gained from the 

 number of seeds taken at a meal. Thirty but- 

 tonweed seeds, 200 to 300 smartweed seeds, 

 often 500 of sheep sorrel, and 700 of three- 

 sided mercury have been taken at one feeding. 

 One bird, taken November 6, 1902, had eaten 

 a thousand ragweed akenes; another, killed the 

 previous November, had eaten an equal num- 

 ber of the seeds of crabgrass, a troublesome 

 weed in truck land. Birds have been shot in 

 Mecklenburg County, Va., whose stomachs 

 contained 3,000 leguminous seeds, mostly of 

 the tick trefoil and various species of bush 

 clover. Pigeon grass, which is extremely com- 

 mon and mischievous in truck land, is a fa- 

 vorite food. No less than 5,000 seeds of this 



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