40 BOBWHITB AND OTHER QtTAILS OF UNITED STATES. 



Romaine, of Crockett, Tex., says: "Quail have built their nests 

 around my fence and even in my garden, within 50 feet of my house. 

 They have kept my potato patch entirely free from the Colorado 

 potato bug." Three captive bobwhites dispatched 50 potato beetles 

 in five minutes, swallowing them whole, apparently with great zest. 

 No food oflFered them was eaten with more avidity. Thomas Mcll- 

 wraith says a recent writer mentions that he examined the crop of 

 one which was killed as it rose from a potato patch and found that 

 it contained 75 potato bugs." Lawrence Bruner reports 101 of these 

 beetles found in a single crop.* Such wholesale destruction of the&e 

 pests throughout a large territory is an invaluable aid to agriculture. 



The two species of cucumber beetles {Diabrotica vittata and D. 

 l^-punctata) are highly injurious to cucumbers, squashes, melons, 

 and corn, much of the harm being caused by their larvae, which feed 

 on the roots of infested crops and are difficult to combat successfully 

 with insecticides. The bobwhite eats them freely without ill effect, 

 though examination seldom reveals them in the stomachs of other 

 birds. Indeed, captive birds of all the other species experimented 

 with have refused them, probably because of their offensive secre- 

 tions. 



To some extent the bobwhite feeds also on certain leaf beetles, 

 known, from their jumping powers, as flea beetles. Its favorites 

 appear to be the three-lined potato beetle {Lema trUineata), some- 

 times an ally of the potato beetle in the potato patch, (Edionychus 

 fimbriata, and several members of the genus Disonycha. The golden 

 tortoise beetle {Goptocycla bicolor), an insect that looks like a drop 

 of molten gold and is an enemy of the sweet potato, is also eaten. 

 The locust leaf -mining beetle (Odontota dorsalis) is another victim 

 of the bird. Its larvae tunnel between the surfaces of locust leaves 

 and kill the foliage. In 1895 the ravages of this pest turned the 

 locust- fringed bluffs on the Potomac below Washington as brown as 

 if touched by fire. 



The agriculturist finds weevils hard to cope with, on account of 

 their small size, protective coloration, and retiring mode of life. 

 Birds, however, destroy them in large numbers, often a score or two 

 at a meal, and bobwhite does his share of the work. He often eats 

 two common species that feed on clover leaves {Sitones hispiduhis 

 and Phytonomus punctatus), and preys also on the two billbugs 

 (Sphenophorus parvulus and Sphenophorus sea), the latter injurious 

 to corn. He relishes also that notorious garden pest, the imbricated 

 snout beetle. His most important weevil prey is the Mexican cotton 

 boll weevil {AntJwnomus grandis). In 1894 this insect first crossed 

 the Mexican border into Texas. During 1903 it caused a loss of 



1 Birds of Ontario, p. 170, 1894. s Notes on Nebraska Birds, p. 80, 1896. 



