18 LEGISLATION FOB THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 



mainly insectivorous. An examination of 230 stomachs of the yellow- 

 shafted flicker showed the presence of 5 percent mineral, 39 percent 

 vegetable, and 56 percent animal matter. 1 The mineral element was 

 mainly sand, probably picked up accidentally along with other food. 

 The vegetable matter consisted of the seeds of a number of weeds and 

 berries of several native shrubs and occasionally a small amount of 

 grain, but too little to be of much consequence. Flickers are more 

 terrestrial than other woodpeckers, and a large part of their animal 

 food consists of ants, which constitute nearly half the food of the 

 year. Several stomachs contained little else, and at least two con- 

 tained more than 3,000 each of these insects. Beetles stand next to 

 ants in importance, forming about 10 percent of the food, and including 

 chiefly May beetles, a few snapping beetles, and carabids, or preda- 

 ceous ground beetles. Grasshoppers also are eaten at certain times, as 

 shown by several stomachs (collected in June, 1865, in Dixon County, 

 Nebr.), which contained from 15 to 48 grasshoppers each. A bird 

 with such a record is far too valuable to be killed for food, and is 

 entitled to all the protection ordinarily accorded insectivorous species. 



BOBOLINKS OR REEDBIEDS. 



Comparatively few passerine birds are treated as game. Among 

 these few, bobolinks (reedbirds), blackbirds, meadowlarks, and robins 

 are the most important. The enormous numbers of bobolinks {Doli- 

 chonyx oryzvuorus — fig. 4) which flock to the Atlantic coast each autumn 

 to feed on the seeds of wild rice before taking their departure for the 

 rice fields of the South and their winter haunts in South America have 

 given rise to the sport of reedbird shooting, a sport scarcely known 

 in other sections of the country. The bobolink, which is rigidly 

 protected during its stay on its breeding grounds in the Northern 

 States, receives the name of reedbird as soon as it enters the Middle 

 States in autumn dress, and is considered legitimate game. Open 

 seasons are legalized in the Middle States as follows : Delaware, 

 September 1 to February 1; District of Columbia, August 21 to Feb- 

 ruary 1 (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays only); Maryland, Sep- 

 tember 1 to November 1; New Jersey, August 25 to January 1; Penn- 

 sylvania, September 1 to November 30. For a few weeks it is killed 

 in enormous numbers for market, and when it reaches the Carolinas, 

 farther south, where it is known as the ricebird, the slaughter is 

 increased, not for sport, but as protection against its ravages in the 

 rice fields. Here it becomes a veritable pest, and may be killed lawfully 

 at any season. To many persons it is a delicious morsel, although its 

 diminutive body furnishes little more than a taste of meat. There 



'Beal, Food of Woodpeckers, Bull. 7, Div. Ornith. and Mamm., Dept. Agr pp 

 16-20, 1895, 



