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opposite end. "Returning in the same manner over the next 

 five rows, they continued in this course, until they had ex- 

 plored the greater portion of the field. The lad, being sus- 

 picious that 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 gra- 

 nivorus 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. Koberts, a farmer who resided in Colesville, Ohio, com- 

 municated an important fact to one of the papers of that State. 

 A neighbor asked his assistance in killing some Yellow-birds 

 which the farmers accused of destroying their wheat. Mr. 

 Roberts declined, because he did no't believe their accusations, 

 and was inclined to cherish 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 wheat, the bird had devoured the iceevil, ivhich.isthe 

 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 sup- 

 posed 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 



