44 BOBWHITE AND OTHER QUAILS OF UNITED STATES. 



green thing before it, and often driving the farmer from homo and 

 threatening him with starvation. During a single season it has 

 caused a loss of $100,000,000. 



In 1874-75 Samuel Aughey made a special study of a Nebraska 

 invasion and found that the bobwhites were an active enemy of the 

 locusts. Of 21 birds shot between May and October, inclusive, all 

 but five had fed on locusts. The smallest number taken by any bird 

 was 20 and the largest 39 ; in all, 539 — an average of 25 apiece. C. V. 

 Kiley ascertained that the bird feeds also on the eggs of the locust, 

 particularly in winter, when they ai-e exposed by the freezing and 

 thawing of the ground. If every covey destroyed as many locusts 

 in a day as the one just referred to, it is hard to overestimate the 

 usefulness of the bobwhite where abundant in infested regions. 



The following are a few of the many species of ortliopterous 

 insects identified from the crops and stomachs of bobwhites : 



Cricket (Grylhis sp.). Red-legged grasshopper {Melanoplus 



Meadow grasshoispers (Xiphidium, Or- femur-ruhrum) . 



clieliHum, Scuclderia) . Grasshopper (Melanoplus Mvittatiis, 



Katydid (;l//fTocr)7tr»m sp.). .1/. scudderl, M. atlanis). 



Wallving sticlis (Phasmida;) . Bird grasshopper (Schistocerca amerl- 



Grouse locust (Teii«> sp.). cana). 



Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretns). , 



CATEEPILLABS EATEN. 



The bobwhite seems to eat fewer caterpillars than would be ex- 

 pected from its terrestrial habits. The yearly proportion only 

 formed 0.95 per cent and the maximum quantity eaten in a month 

 Avas 4 per cent in May. This apparent neglect of caterpillars as food 

 is perhaps due to their scarcity AA'here the birds for the present study 

 were shot. ' Pupse and adult moths occasionally serve as food. 

 Whatever the list of species of caterpillars eaten by bobwhite lacks 

 in length it makes up in importance, for so great a proportion of 

 serious lepidopterous pests is seldom found in the fare of any bird. 

 As is true of some other birds, the bobwhite includes the army worm 

 in its bill of fare. This pest sometimes exists in legions and moves 

 steadily forward from field to field, devouring corn, oats, forage, and 

 other crops. Fortunately it is not often active, and the years of its 

 occurrence are frequently separated by long intervals. Every year, 

 however, the different species of cutworms do serious damage. They 

 cut down germinating grain, often before the plants have fairly 

 sprung above ground. Owing to their mode of feeding, a few worms 

 may lop off many plants in a night. It seems strange that the bob- 

 whites find as many of these nocturnal larvse as they do. The cotton 

 worm, a pest so destructive that in one year it has caused a loss of 

 $30,000,000 to the cotton fields, is preyed upon by the bobwhite. To- 

 bacco worms were sparingly eaten by bobwhites at Marshall Hall, 



