birds at all times, and abolish the trapping and netting of 

 game. Were it not for these laws, the farmer would be con- 

 tinually annoyed by the tramping of hunters through his 

 fields at all seasons, the tearing down of his pasture walls 

 and fences and the shooting of birds in the nesting season. 



Some game birds are very valuable to the farmer as de- 

 stroyers of insects and other pests; some game mammals, on 

 the contrary, are sometimes destructive to his crops or trees; 

 but the farmer who takes advantage of the laws enacted for 

 the prevention of trespass, the protection of crops and the 

 conservation of game and birds, may thereby add to his 

 prosperity as well as to his pleasure in life, and by fosteiing 

 the increase of fish, game and birds he may make life more 

 attractive to his boys, and thus help to keep them on the 

 farm. This paper will be devoted mainly to the material 

 advantages that the farmer may derive from the protection 

 of wild game, and particularly game birds. 



Economic Value of Game Birds. 



High among the valuable destroyers of insects and weeds 

 we must rank the bob-white, commonly known in New Eng- 

 land as the quail. This bird has not only an esthetic value, 

 by reason of its bright, lively presence and its cheery call, but 

 it is also one of the chief feathered helpers in field and garden. 



Dr. Judd of the Bureau of Biological Survey gives some in- 

 teresting records obtained by a study of its food.^ 



The contents of the stomachs of 801 bob-whites were ex- 

 amined by the experts of the survey; over 50 per cent of 

 the food consisted of seeds, the bulk of this being weed seeds. 

 One bird had in its stomach 1,000 seeds of rag weed; another 

 had eaten no less than 5,000 seeds of the troublesome pigeon 

 grass. As each bird eats two or more meals a day of this 

 character during the season when weed seeds may be found, 

 a few flocks of such birds might do much to limit the pro- 

 duction of weeds on any farm. Dr. Judd estimates that 

 the bob-whites of Virginia consume 573 tons of weed seeds 

 between September 1 and April 30. Examining the insect 



1 Judd, Sylvester D. The Economic Value of the Bob-white. Year Book, United States 

 Department of Agriculture, 1903, pp. 193-204. 



