88 



BIRD FRIENDS 



on an acre of land on a Maryland farm, the 540 birds 

 found there destroyed 46,000 weed seeds at a single 

 breakfast. 



Mr. E. H. Forbush, during one winter, fed the 

 birds at his window with seeds of Japanese millet, 

 a sort of weed improved by cultivation, whose seeds 

 are larger than those of most weeds. Records were 

 kept of the number of seeds eaten in a certain time. 

 It was found that the three species feeding averaged 

 each to eat thirty-five seeds per minute. Assuming 

 that each bird fed on weed seeds at this rate for only 

 one hour a day, it would destroy 2100 seeds daily, 

 or 14,700 weekly. 



The following table, based on the reports of the 

 Bureau of Biological Survey, shows the number of 

 weed seeds that have been found in a single stomach 

 of various birds : — 



It is estimated that in the States of Virginia and 

 North Carolina, the bob-white consumes thirteen 

 hundred tons of weed seeds in eight months. 



