252: THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 
DUCK HUNTING IN OREGON 
By Warpben Joun Larson. 
The largest violation of all laws is that which is carried on in 
Alaska. Men shoot and kill the young ducks and also gather the duck 
eggs from the breeding places and destroy them. Even the mating 
ducks are killed, so there is getting less and less each year. 
All the Oregon sportsmen should put their shoulders together and 
try and protect these ducks. They can try and get the Government 
to protect the breeding places, as well as the birds themselves. If all 
these birds were protected as they should be they would increase 20 
per cent a year, but as it is they are decreasing nearly that much 
each year. 
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN? 
The annual loss to the various crops from insect pests ranges 
from 10 to 20 per cent. These figures, obtained by the Department 
of Agriculture in 1904, still stand unchanged and unchallenged. 
Natural.forests and vorest: products: 2.057234 2 os..eeeeeees $100,000,000 
Cereals sa.0 428. Cee ee ee oe eee 10 per cent 200,000,000 
Hay cd aed sek Sas ee OE ee eee eee 10 per cent 53,000,000 
Cotton -:2 <dsaes Ake cee eens Bae ee ee 10 per cent 60,000.000 
TODAGGO: i oh Sa ak eee ee eee ce ee 10 per cent 5,300,000 
Truck :CLOPS. 2 2%. die ohiassssice ahs sg Ree 20 per cent 53,000,000 
FURUUTES: ojos Ein Me bs Sins b tet So RR oe ete eee ee 20 per cent 27,000,000 
Susser aikiane cecd sere ue aes eat eid seen eee 10 per cent 5,000,000 
Hagem, FOFESES» : sis: xual ytajal ck lae oedais sree ane BRM ete en ee ae 10 per cent 11,000,000 
Miscellaneoug: Cropss nt <6, .«.2. 0 4c el eee ee 10 per cent 5,800,000 
Totals: sj.5 0.4 Gee oe eke ee oe he a ee renee ee eee $520,100,000. 
The birds that the migratory law strives to protect have been-the 
means largely of keeping these figures from growing greater. Like- 
wise the decrease for many years in the numbers of song birds, tree 
climbers, swallows, shore birds, grouse and quail is a very potent fac- 
tor in-considering the present appalling figures. 
Of the birds mentioned the much hunted quail is, perhaps, of most 
value to the farmer and the fruit grower. The quail remains on the 
farm from spring to spring; in insect season: the quail’s diet is made 
up of them entirely. (Of the 145 species which he has been found to 
consume are chinchbug, beanleaf beetle, wireworm, cornhill bug, plant 
lice, caboage butterfly, squash beetie, etc.) He is active during 16 to 
18 hours a day; when the insects are gone he turns his attention to 
weeds; on his list of weed seeds are 129 varieties, among which are 
burdock, peppergrass, smartweed, plaintain, beggarticks, black mus- 
tard, etc.; 10,000 seeds for one bird in one day is a small portion and 
much less than the average adult bird requires. : 
The few shore birds that we boast in this state, mostly kildeer, 
plover and curlew, feed largely on locusts, grasshoppers and mosqui- 
toes. 
Some birds that are of special value in devouring the codling 
moths, so fearful in their destruction of orchards, are woodpeckers, 
kingbird, flycatcher, bluebird, bluejay, warblers, robin, chickadee. 
Consequently, if we could only impress upon the minds of the 
public in general the economic value of our birds and the necessity for 
protecting them in every possible way, we would have increasing num- 
bers of insectivorous birds and a correspondnig decrease of damages 
to crops. . 
