24 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 198 



BIRDS. 



Want of Space prevents any adequate treatment of these im« 

 portant allies of the farmer. Farmer's Bulletin No. 54 on "Some 

 Common Birds in their Relation to Agriculture," may be obtained 

 from the U. S. Department of Agriculture and gives much valuable 

 information. Weed and Dearborn's "Birds in their Relation to 

 Man," (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia) is a very valuable work 

 from the economic standpoint. 



The followiiig notes upon some of our common birds and bird 

 groups gives some meager information regarding their usefulness: 



Quail: A great feeder upon weed seed of all kinds. Over 60 

 percent of its food is weed seed. It devours great quantities of the 

 seeds of ragweed, pigweed, sheep sorrel, paspalum, jewell weed, 

 pigeon grass, etc. The stomachs and crops of 13 birds, shot and 

 examined by the U. S. Biological Survey, contained, even though 

 only partially filled, 5,582 weed seeds. One crop contained 400 pig- 

 weed seeds, a second 200 seeds of ragweed, a third 620 seeds of 

 pigeon grass, and a fourth 550 seeds of sheep sorrel. It also eats 

 freely of our worst insect pests, grasshoppers, chinch bugs, Colorado 

 potato beetles, striped cucumber beetles. May beetles, army worms, 

 cutworms, etc. A more valuable bird does not live on the farm. 



Mourning Dove: As a weed consumer it has habits similar to 

 the quail, but eats few or no insects. 



Cuckoos: Great feeders upon caterpillars, devouring hairy 

 ones as well as smooth ones. The tent-caterpillars and fall web- 

 worms, which are usually shunned by other birds because of their 

 hairiness, are greedily eaten by the cuckoo or rain crow. Stink 

 bugs, grasshoppers, beetles and spiders are also eaten. 



Crow: This bird devours grasshoppers, cutworms, May 

 beetles, caterpillars, frogs, toads, snakes, eggs of all kinds, young 

 birds including young chickens, mice, crayfishes, snails, some grain 

 and also a little fruit. It has the mischievious habit of pulling up 

 sprouting corn, also of eating . green corn ears while. "in the 

 milk." 



. Some one or more of the following methods may be tried to pro- 

 tect seed corn from crows: 



1 "Tar the seed corn as follows: Put one-fourth to one-half 

 bushel of corn in a half-barrel tub; pour on a pailful of hot water, or 

 as much as is necessary to well cover the corn; dip a stick in gas tar 

 and stir this briskly in the corn; repeat until the corn is entirely 

 black; pour off onto burlap (bran sacks are excellent); spread in the 

 sun and stir two or three times during the day. If this work is done 

 in the morning and the day is sunny, the corn will be ready for the 



