4 BULLETIN 715, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



IMPROVING COVERTS FOR UPLAND GAME BIRDS. 



The favorite resorts of upland game fowl have long been known as 

 coverts, no doubt on account of their being admirably adapted to 

 covering or concealing the birds. Such coverts are usually charac- 

 terized by an abundance of low but dense and stiff or thorny shrub- 

 bery, together with luxuriant growths of grasses and weeds . These 

 plants supply also an important part of the food of grouse and quail; 

 and adding goodly stocks of them to suitable areas in our national 

 reservations will do much to preserve and increase the upland game. 



Bob-whites frequently use coverts of rose, alder, and blackberry 

 bushes, and also thickly set barberry and bayberry and dense banks 



Fig. 1.— Wild geese in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Cal. 



of honeysuckle. These plants furnish food for the birds, but 

 they should be supplemented by others more exclusively adapted 

 for this purpose. Sumach, Japanese clover, buckwheat, sorghum, 

 millet, vetches, cowpeas, and any plants of the pea family producing 

 small seeds are valuable and should be sown in large quantities. 

 The seeds of milk pea (Galactia), partridge pea (Cliamxchrista) , hog 

 peanut (Fdlcaia), wild bean (StropTwstyles) , and smart weeds {Poly- 

 gonum) are important natural foods of the eastern quail, but should 

 be encouraged only where they can not become weed pests. 

 Western quail are fond of the seeds of sumach, bur clover, alfilaria, 

 lupines, napa thistle, and turkey mullein plants; but where these 



