FOOD HABITS. 31 



seeds, and it has been known to eat a lima bean. It may take also 

 Kafir corn and soi'ghum, and it has a decided lilting for millet 

 {C htttochloa italica), a taste particularly noticeable in birds of Kan- 

 sas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. A crop from Onaga, Kaiis., con- 

 tained 1,000 millet seeds. Xo significant damage to millet has been 

 reported and the birds may secure most of this food from stubble 

 fields. 



Weed Seeds as Food. 



"Weeds appro^jriate the space, light, water, and food of the plants 

 that directly or indirectly support man. A million weeds may spring 

 up on a single acre, and a single plant of one of these species may 

 mature 100,000 seeds in a season. This process, if unchecked, may 

 produce in the spring of the third year 10,000,000.000 weeds. The 

 problem of weed destruction is perennial in every land; indeed, soil 

 culture may be called a never ceasing war against weeds. Of the 

 birds that aid the farmer in this strug- 

 gle the bobwhite, the native sparrows, 

 and the mourning dove are the most ^ ^ 

 efficient. They attack weeds at that ( 



vital stage — the seed period — hence ^ ^ 

 their work, especially against the an- ^ • 

 nuals which depend on seeds for per- * 



petuation, is of enormous practical p 



Fig. 1. — Seed of 'witch grass {Panuyuin- 

 The bobwhite is preeminently a capUlare). (From BuU. 38, Nevada, 

 seed eater, 52.83 per cent of its food Agrlcultaral Experiment station.) 



for the year consisting of seeds. The bulk of these are the seeds 

 of plants belonging to the general category of weeds. ilany of 

 them are injurious plants with which the farmer is constantly at 

 strife; others are less noxious and some are seldom, if ever, trouble- 

 some. Sixty-odd species are known to be eaten, and thorough obser- 

 vations would probably raise the number to a hundred or more. The 

 food of no other bird with which the writer is acquainted is so varied. 

 At Marshall Hall and in Mecklenburg and Westmoreland counties. 

 Va., a somewhat detailed study was made of the weed seed eaten 

 by the bird. At Marshall Hall fields of wheat stubble grown up 

 to ragweed were favorite feeding grounds. Among others found 

 there were buttonweed seeds, each like a miniature htfrsehoof, com- 

 plete even to the frog ; 20 or 30 of these were sometimes contained in 

 a single stomach. A number of birds shot on wheat stubble had eaten 

 largely of bastard pennyroyal seeds, which are rough and resemble 

 blackberry seeds. Goldfinches and other seed eatejs also find these 

 palatable. Along ditches the abundant grasses — witch grass (fig. 1) 

 and spreading panicum — provide the birds with shade in summer and 

 5112— No. 21—05 M 5 



