BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 333 



In 1897 Mr. F. H. Mosher confined two adult birds at 

 Maiden. They were given some choice of food, and were 

 fond of grain, weed seeds, vegetables, fruit, and insects. 

 They ate seventy full-grown gipsy moth caterpillars in half 

 a day. Within another half day they ate one hundred and 

 eight egg-bearing female gipsy moths. No young birds 

 could be secured for experiment. 



In 1903 complaints began to come in that Pheasants were 

 injuring crops and killing game birds. Circulars sent out 

 to three hundred correspondents in different parts of the 

 State brought replies regarding these birds from over two 

 hundred people. A considerable number of correspondents 

 had never heard of the species in their vicinity. Forty-two 

 stated that the bird was not then present in their sections. 

 Thirty asserted either that it was very rare in their vicinity 

 or had disappeared. Pheasants were reported as numer- 

 ous only near Winchester, where the State pheasantry was 

 located, in a few other places where they were being bred, 

 and in portions of Essex County, where they had an oppor- 

 tunity to breed on large estates on which no gunning was 

 allowed. Forty-five persons stated that Pheasants were 

 doing no injury to crops or game birds. Three persons com- 

 plained that Pheasants were killing Bob-whites and Ruffed 

 Grouse ; and nine asserted that Pheasants were injuring 

 crops, principally corn, tomatoes, peas, beans, cabbages, and 

 potatoes. Practically all these complaints came from those 

 few sections where the birds were becoming numerous. 

 Pheasants have taken more of my sprouting corn than have 

 either Crows or squirrels. They do not pull it up, as the 

 Crows do, but dig it up with the beak. In other localities 

 they are said to "pull more corn than the Crows." In the 

 fall they eat what corn they can reach from the ground, and 

 in Wareham they are said to dig "bushels" of potatoes. 



The evidence regarding the killing of game birds was 

 merely circumstantial. Several reputable persons asserted 

 that since Pheasants had become common they had found 

 "both Partridges and Quail with their heads pecked open." 

 Other birds of these species were said to have borne evi- 

 dence of having been slain in combat with a larger bird. 



