H4 



RECREATION. 



If crows, or eagles, or hawks, or black- 

 birds, or red squirrels become seriously 

 destructive to song and game birds, or 

 lambs, or poultry, it is fair and right to go 

 after them with guns and reduce their 

 numbers, just as we have done with the 

 surplus of quarrelsome red squirrels in the 

 Zoological Park. The time to do this 

 is during the birds' breeding season; but 

 do not attack any species in a savage spirit 

 of extermination. Wild creatures generally 

 are quick to learn when war is being waged 

 against them ; and no bird is quicker to 

 take a hint from a shot gun than a crow is. 

 Thin out the murderers, whenever it be- 

 comes necessary; but do not exterminate 

 any wild species. 



W. T. Hornaday. 



A VALUABLE PUBLIC DOCUMENT. 



The Agriculture Department, at Wash- 

 ington, has lately issued a bulletin entitled 

 "The Economic Value of Bob White," 

 which is one of the most interesting and 

 valuable to sportsmen and farmers that has 

 ever emanated from that office. The paper 

 was prepared by Sylvester D. Judd, Ph.D., 

 Assistant Ornithologist, Biological Sur- 

 vey, and is a most complete and exhaustive 

 treatise on the subject. Among the many 

 important .facts set forth in this document 

 are these : 



That the stomach of one quail examined 

 contained 30 buttonwood seeds ; 



Another 300 smartweed seeds ; 



Another 500 seeds of sheep sorrel ; 



Another 700 seeds of the 3 sided mercury; 



That several stomachs were full of seeds 

 of the rag weed; 



That one stomach contained over 1,000 

 seeds of this weed ; 



Another 1,000 seeds of the crabgrass ; 



Another more than 3,000 seeds of various 

 noxious weeds ; 



Another over 5,000 seeds of pigeon grass ; 



Another 10,000 seeds of the pig weed ; 



It is estimated that in Virginia there are 

 4 quails to each square mile of land, or 

 169,800 quails in the entire State. The crop 

 of each of these birds will hold half an 

 ounce of seed, and allowing 2 daily meals 

 to each bird the total consumption of weed 

 seeds by these birds in one season, amounts 

 to 573 tons. 



We frequently hear it said that the quail 

 is entirely a granivorous bird, that it does 

 not eat insects at all ; yet this document 

 shows conclusively that about 15 per cent, 

 of the entire food of the quail, during the 

 spring and summer months, consists of in- 

 sects ; that 116 species of insects injurious 

 to agriculture, are known to be eagerly 

 sought after by the quail. Among these 

 are the Colorado potato bug, the cucumber 

 beetle, the bean leaf beetle, the squash lady- 

 bird, the wire worm, the May beetle, vari- 



ous other species of beetles, including the 

 Mexican cotton boll weevil ; also the cater- 

 pillar, the army worm, the corn-louse ant, 

 the cut worm, the grasshopper, the Rocky 

 Mountain locust and the chinch bug. 



More than one dozen army worms have 

 been taken from the stomach of a single 

 bird and 30 Rocky Mountain locusts from 

 another. 



Over 40 cotton boll weevils were taken 

 from the stomach of one Bob White. 



This bug damaged the cotton crop in 

 Texas last year to the amount of $15,000,- 

 000. Think of the number of these destruc- 

 tive insects that would have been consumed 

 by the quails if they had been allowed to 

 remain as numerous in that State as they 

 were 10 or 20 years ago ! 



The potato beetle is known to have dam- 

 aged the potato crop in the United States 

 to the extent of more than $10,000,000 last 

 year. If the quail had been properly pro- 

 tected all or nearly all that loss would have 

 been averted. 



The chinch bug and the Rocky Mountain 

 locust are estimated to Jiave destroyed in a 

 single year more than $100,000,000 worth 

 of farm crops ; yet if the quail had been 

 allowed to remain in its former abundance 

 the greater part, if not all, of this loss 

 would have been prevented. 



I have known farmers, who left their 

 plows, reapers and mowing machines out- 

 doors all winter, to complain of the des- 

 truction of their grain by quails ; yet these 

 same birds would have saved some of these 

 individual farmers hundreds of dollars 

 worth of grain if the birds had been prop- 

 erly cared for. 



Every farmer and every sportsman in the 

 United States should have a copy of this 

 recent bulletin and can get it for the ask- 

 ing. 



HOW TO TAN SKINS. 



Most sportsmen have use for leather in 

 making jackets, cartridge bags, knife scab- 

 bards, etc-, and those who live where there 

 are woodchucks can catch and tan their own 

 leather, which will be as soft as the best 

 they can buy. I tanned a number of skins 

 last spring and made some good shoestrings, 

 watch chains, and other useful tricks. 



Here is the recipe: 



Put 4 quarts of air-slacked lime in 3 gal- 

 lons of water put in the skin and let it re- 

 main 26 hours, or until the fur slips off eas- 

 ily. Then rinse well, stretch, and dry. Go 

 to the woods, get a pail of hemlock bark, 

 fill the pail with boiling water and let it 

 remain 2 days. Then strain and add to the 

 juice 3 ounces of alum, 3 ounces of salt- 

 petre and stir. Put the skin in this and let 

 it remain one week, or until it is as dark as 

 you wish; then take it out and beat until 



