BIRDS 299 



grubs. The thrushes, sparrows, and other birds that live 

 upon the ground devour myriads of insect foes. 



Let us consider some individual examples of the contents 

 of birds' stomachs as a proof of their value as destroyers of 

 insects, rodents, and the seeds of weeds. The stomach 

 of one night hawk contained the remains of 38 grasshoppers, 

 another 22, and still another 19. Nearly three fourths of 

 the food of the meadow lark is composed of insects and over 

 12 per cent consists of weed seeds. The stomach of one 

 quail, or bobwhite, contained 101 potato beetles. Dr. A. K. 

 Fisher examined 200 food pellets which had accumulated 

 from two barn owls that roosted in a tower of a building in 

 Washington and found 225 skulls of meadow mice, 179 of 

 house mice, 20 of rats, 2 of pine mice, 6 of jumping mice, 

 20 of shrews, 1 of the star-nosed mole, and 1 of the vesper 

 sparrow. The stomach of one mourning dove contained 

 7500 seeds of the yellow wood sorrel, while another con- 

 tained 6400 seeds of barn grass. It is useless to multiply 

 examples. If it were not for birds, the earth would be 

 almost uninhabitable. 



CLASSIFIOATIOISr OF THE EXAMPLES 



Class — Aves. 



Division A — Ratitae. 

 Order — Megistanes. 

 Tjrpes of Order. 



Casuarius casuarius — Cassowary. 

 Apteryx australis — Apteryx. 

 Order — Rhese.' 

 Type of Order. 



Rhea rhea — South American ostrich. 

 Order — Struthiones. 

 Type of Order. 



Struthio camelus — Ostrich. 



