THE EARTH'S BOUNTY 



troublesome plant were found in the stomach 

 of a bird shot in October, 1902, at Pinebrook, 

 N. J. Finally, a Bob white taken on Christ- 

 mas Day, 1901, at Kinsvale, Va., was discov- 

 ered to have eaten 10,000 seeds of that abun- 

 dant and obnoxious pest of the garden, the 

 pigweed. 



A careful computation of the total amount 

 of weed seed the Bob white is capable of de- 

 stroying is surprising in the magnitude of its 

 result. In the State of Virginia it is safe to 

 assume that, from September 1 to April 30, 

 the season when the largest proportion of 

 weed seed is consumed by birds, there are 

 four Bobwhites to the square mile, or 169,800 

 in the entire State. The crop of each of these 

 birds will hold half an ounce of seed, and as 

 at each of the two daily meals weed seed con- 

 stitutes at least half the contents of the crop, 

 or a quarter of an ounce, a half ounce daily 

 is certainly consumed by each bird. On this 

 very conservative basis the total consumption 



of weed seed by Bobwhites, from September 



238 



