78 BIRDS OF A MAHYLAND FARM. 



to other food, seeds of yellow sorrel, spotted spurge, crab-grass, and 

 pigeon-grass. Another, on the upper part of the Hungerford place, 

 foraged in the ragweed of wheat and oat stubble, and in a heavy crop 

 of crab-grass and pigeon-grass in a cornfield that was being harvested. 

 The stomach of one of these birds, taken November 17, 1899, contained 

 150 ragweed seeds, and another 300 crab-grass seeds. The third, on 

 the lower part of this farm, were not seen in stubble-fields, but fre- 

 quented forests of weeds in certain orchards and truck plots, and 

 apparently made their whole fare on the seeds. During the heavy 

 snow of February, 1900, doves fed in a wind-swept pasture, some- 

 times appearing to pick up weed seeds, and sometimes assembling in 

 two pits 10 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep, where abundantly fruited 

 plants of pokeberry were growing. At five different times the flock, 

 numbering more than 20, was flushed from the pits. Footprints and 

 red stains on the snow showed that they were -eating berries and prob- 

 ably their seeds, some of which were found on the ground after the 

 snow had melted. Fruit-eating birds, which take the berries of this 

 plant, void the seeds uninjured and thus disseminate them, but doves 

 grind them to atoms by the powerful action of their gizzards. 



Bobwhite. — One covey of the bobwhites, which has already been 

 described as feeding largelj'' on wheat in its season, lived on the upper 

 part of the Hungerford place; another, still larger, which to judge 

 from its droppings took practicallj'' no grain, lived on the lower pai't; 

 and a third lived on the Bryan farm. One bird from the first covey, 

 7 from the second, and 6 from the third were shot and examined. 

 These 13 had taken weed seed to the extent of 63 percent of their food. 

 Thirty-eight percent was ragweed, 2 percent tick-trefoil, partridge pea, 

 and locust seeds, and 23 percent seeds of miscellaneous weeds, such 

 as pigweed, sheep sorrel, Pennsylvania persicaria, climbing false 

 buckwheat, trumpet creeper, paspalum, jewel-weed, and pigeon-grass. 

 Though the stomachs and crops were not well filled, the birds had eaten 

 5,582 weed seeds. One crop contained 400 pigweed seeds, another 

 500 seeds of ragweed. The latter seeds, which are cracked open by 

 most birds, are swallowed whole bj"^ bobwhites and doves, in spite of 

 the spiny processes which beset them. One bobwhite, in addition to 

 other food, had consumed 550 seeds of sheep sorrel; another 640 seeds 

 of pigeon-grass; and several 50 to 100 seeds of jewel-weed. 



Extent of weed-seed destruction. — Inspection of an acre of truck land 

 between two converging bushy brooks on the Hungerford farm 

 (November 16, 1899), gave a vei-y satisfactory idea of the autumn 

 work of weed-destroying birds. Crab-grass and pigeon-grass formed 

 a low undergi-owth, while lamb's-quarters, pigweed, and giant rag- 

 weed from 6 to 10 feet high rose in a thick weed foi-est. A flock of 

 15 quail foraged in the center of the area, 25 doves were scattered over 

 the upper end, and fully 200 native sparrows scurried about at the 



