eaten in quantities. Cucumber beetles, bean leaf beetles, May- 

 beetles, click beetles and their progeny the wireworms, weevils, 

 potato beetles, spinach flea beetles, grape vine beetles, corn bill 

 bugs, chinch bugs, cut-worms, cotton worms, boll worms, south- 

 ern tobacco worms, army worms, garden caterpillars, grasshop- 

 pers, locusts and ants are found in its bill of fare. It is one 

 of the few birds that are very destructive to the Colorado potato 

 beetle and the chinch bug. Without question the bob-white is 

 one of the birds that the farmer should strive to protect. The 

 ruffed grouse, the heath hen, the wild turkey, the introduced 

 pheasants, the woodcock and the snipe, — all have a greater 

 or less value as insect destroyers, and most of these birds feed 

 upon the seeds of weeds. 



Wild ducks may be of great service during any outbreak of 

 insect pests in the fields. They are destructive to mosquitoes, 

 grasshoppers, locusts and ai'my worms. Most of the non-game 

 birds of the farm are particularly beneficial. In a report of 

 the Secretary of Agriculture on the work of the Biological 

 Survey, transmitted to Congress with a special message by 

 President Eoosevelt on Dec. 21, 1907, it is estimated that the 

 sparrows of the United States saved the farmers of the country 

 in 1906 $35,000,000 by the destruction of weeds ; and that a 

 single species of hawk saves the farmers of the western States 

 $175,500 a year by the destruction of grasshoppers and field 

 mice. It will pay the farmer, therefore, to promote the protec- 

 tion of nearly all the birds of the farm, and to lend his in- 

 fluence to the enforcement of the game laws and bird laws, for 

 the birds that are distinctl}^ injurious are not protected. 



The Economic Value of Game Maimmals. 

 The native game mammals of Massachusetts consist of squir- 

 rels, hares, commonly called rabbits, and deer. The woodchuck, 

 raccoon, fox and other predatory or destructive mammals, 

 although hunted, are usually classed as vermin by the game- 

 keeper, but some of them yield valuable fur. Squirrels are of 

 some service as tree planters, for they distribute the seeds of 

 nut-bearing and cone-bearing trees far and wide ; also they de- 

 stroy insects, for a time, in the summer. Fndcr protection, 



