14 



that nothing has been made in vain as all necessary to maintain 

 the balance of nature. 



Therefore if we take the most beneficial or least injurious 

 first we shall turn to the Gallince. The food of these birds 

 during the breeding season, which is also the most important 

 season for the agriculturalist, consists almost entirely of insect 

 food, chiefly grasshoppers, caterpillars and injurious Coleoptera 

 and Hemiptera. The winter food consists of rose-hips, wild 

 berries and buds, the former a nuisance to the farmer, the 

 latter of no material value. For this reason we may consider 

 Gallince a beneficial order. 



While the Lmiicolce are almost entirely insectivorous their 

 indiscretion in destroying many beneficial aquatic forms as well 

 as injurious species classes them more as a neutral order tend- 

 ing to be beneficial. 



With Anseres the case diff*ers. A duck will eat anj'thing it 

 can get get into its mouth, and a wild duck is no exception to 

 this rule. While they destroy large numbers of injurious forms, 

 they do not discriminate, but devour large numbers of beneficial 

 forms, such as frogs, lizards, crayfish, snails, and the larger 

 aquatic beetles and the Belostoma, which are all beneficial in 

 keeping in check the innumerable small injurious insects too 

 small to be of use to the ducks. However, were this the only 

 charge, we should acquit them as neutral, which they probably 

 are to the agriculturist. But much graver charges are laid 

 against them which sooner or later will require investigation. 



Our goverimients annually spend large sums of money in 

 replenishing the supply of food fishes in our lakes and rivers, 

 and many species of this order of birds have a decided piscator- 

 ial appetite, more especially the open water ducks and mer- 

 ganser, which congregate in large numbers at the spawning beds 

 of our food fishes, and gorge themselves upon the fry and spawn, 

 while game commissioners blame the agency of man for the 

 decrease of food fishes. 



I once took from the throat of a shell drake (American mer- 

 ganser) sixty-four small fish, the fry of the whitefish, salmon 

 trout, bass, chub and kindred forms, ranging from one-half to 



