POOD HABITS. 29 



Specimens examined corn amounts to 11.96 per cent of the total food 

 for the year, while all other kinds of grain collectively amount to 

 only 5.42 per cent. Wheat (4.17 per cent) is next to corn in im- 

 portance. As experiments with captive birds failed to show marked 

 preference for either corn or wheat, the disproportion between the 

 two above noted is probably due to the fact that more corn than 

 wheat is grown in the country where our birds were obtained. The 

 remaining cereal food (1.25 per cent of the total) is miscellaneous 

 grain, including Kafir corn, sorghum, millet, buckwheat, barley, -oats, 

 and rye. 



Grain-eating birds are likely to do much harm to crops. They may 

 pull up sprouting grain, plunder the standing crop when it is in the 

 milk, or forage among the sheaves at harvest time. The bobwhite, 

 however, is a notable exception. The period of germination is the 

 time when grain is liable to serious injury by birds. But not a sin- 

 gle sprouting kernel was found in the crops and stomachs of quails 

 examined. Field observations, during the years 1899 and 1900, at 

 Marshall Hall gave similar evidence. While crows injured sprout- 

 ing corn so seriously during May that several extensive replantings 

 were necessary, bobwhites, unusually abundant in the vicinity at the 

 same time, were never seen to disturb the germinating grain. During 

 November, 1899, sprouting wheat was saved from crow blackbirds 

 only by diligent use of the shotgun; but both then and in other sea- 

 sons the bobwhite was rarely observed in winter-wheat fields and 

 never was seen to molest the crop. Sprouting oats apparently were 

 not molested, though extended observations were not made. No data 

 are available for rye and millet, but in newly sown buckwheat fields 

 in Essex County, N. J., which the writer saw ravaged by doves, there 

 was no sign of injury by the bobwhites. Publications on economic 

 ornithology and reports received by the Biological Survey add tes- 

 timony of like character. It may safely be stated, therefore, that so 

 far as at present known the bobwhite does no appreciable harm to 

 sprouting grain. 



In order to learn to what extent the species injures ripening grain, 

 observations were made for several years at Marshal] Hall. Unlike 

 the crow and several kinds of blackbirds, the bobwhite did no damage 

 there to corn in the milk, nor did it injure ripening wheat and oats. 

 Flocks of English sparrows, however, might be seen feeding on 

 wheat in the milk, and not uncommonly a score of goldfinches swayed 

 on the panicles of ripening oats. A hen bobwhite shot in a field of 

 ripe wheat, June 18, 1903, had much of the grain in its crop, though 

 whether obtained from standing heads or from fallen kernels did not 

 appear. As the bobwhite usually feeds on the ground, and as it was 

 never seen feeding from the stalk at Marshall Hall, it appears prob- 

 able that it seeks only the fallen grain. At wheat harvest it follows 



