NATIVE WOODY PLANTS OF THE UNITED STATES 
211 
it that there is variety in forage. Chemical analyses show that the leaves are 
not a balanced ration for livestock and accordingly, they must be supplemented 
by grass or other feed. The deciduous species are more nutritive than the 
evergreen, and are more readily eaten by livestock. 
While most tree oaks are recognized as having timber value, there are many 
shrubby species that may be profitably utilized for erosion-control planting and 
wildlife food and cover. These are the species ordinarily classed as scrub oaks. 
Certain of these are always shrubby, no matter in what site they may be grow- 
ing. The tree oaks, however, may gradually become reduced in size in moun- 
tainous or arid regions. So far as known, there are no oaks which can be 
classed as weeds, although they are occasionally considered to be so in certain 
localities. Eradication, however, is not difficult. 
Many of the species of scrub oaks are thicket forming and some reproduce 
by stolons. Their growth is generally vigorous, many are evergreen, and as a 
group are comparatively fast growing. The ability on the part of scrub oaks to 
form a dense cover rapidly is one which is well known. Altogether there 
would appear to be few plants that are more admirably adapted for erosion 
control, coupled with value to livestock, wild mammals, and birds, than the oaks. 
Stomach records (in addition to specific records) : Sixty-three species of birds 
including ruffed grouse (1 stomach with parts of 24 acorns and many with 10 to 
20), bobwhite (36 parts of acorns in 1 stomach), Mearn's quail, California quail, 
Gambel quail, wild turkey, plumed quail, sharp-tailed grouse, ring-necked pheas- 
ant, greater prairie chicken, lesser prairie chicken (50 parts of acorns in 1 
stomach), and mourning dove; ground squirrel, armadillo, opossum, black-tailed 
deer ; Louisiana white-tailed deer, muskrat, raccoon, gray squirrel, eastern chip- 
munk, black bear, gray fox, white-tailed deer, ring-tailed cat, eastern skunk. 
Composed 4.5 percent of the entire fall food eaten by prairie chicken in Wiscon- 
sin ; composed 5.0 percent of the winter food of ruffed grouse in the northeastern 
United States ; composed 2.3 percent of food of 1,725 mallards. It may be noted 
here that stomach records show such birds as wrens and sparrows to have taken 
at least one complete acorn and that the comparatively large size of acorns 
apparently does not prevent even small birds from eating them. 
Odservations (in addition to specific records) : Forty -nine species of birds 
including turkeys, ruffed grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, doves; acorns heavily 
utilized by lesser prairie chicken in the fall, and oak flowers an important food 
of the same bird in spring in Oklahoma, ranks sixth on the list of quail food 
plants of the Southeast ; Merriam turkey ; preferred fall food of prairie sharp- 
tailed grouse, niffed grouse, and pinnated grouse ; Mearn's quail ; an important 
food of band-tailed pigeons; constituted a larger percentage of food of mule 
deer in the Kaibab National Forest than any other food; Columbian black- 
tailed deer ; Texas white-tailed deer ; red fox ; raccoon, porcupine, Mexican rac- 
coon, peccary, Virginia opossum, snowshoe hare, New Mexico black bear, 
Olympic black bear, Townsend's chipmunk, Siskiyou chipmunk, Allen's chip- 
munk, larger Colorado chipmunk, Arizona chipmunk, gray-footed chipmunk, cliff 
chipmunk, golden-mantled ground squirrel, chestnut-mantled ground squirrel, 
Douglas ground squirrel, southwestern chipmunk, little northern chipmunk, pale 
chipmunk, gray chipmunk ; cut for food and building material in times of scarc- 
ity by beaver ; Merriam's chipmunk ; Douglas' squirrel. Sierra chickaree, digger 
squirrel, Abert's squirrel, Arizona gray squirrel, rock squirrel, gray squirrel, 
Carolina fox squirrel, Couch rock squirrel, black-backed rock squirrel, flying 
squirrels, California gray squirrel. 
Without doubt there is a much greater number of animals, particularly 
squirrels and chipmunks, than here listed that feed on acorns. That they have 
not been recorded in the literature is evidence that acorns are so generally 
accepted as being food for squirrels and chipmunks that many workers have felt 
it unnecessary to record utilization. 
Quercns acuminata, see Quercus muhlenbergii. 
Quercus agrifolia Nee. California live oak. 
Range: 1, 5. 
Site: Dry, well-drained, sun. 
Fruit : Acorn, annual. 
A large shrub to large tree ; evergreen ; occurs in sand, loam, gravel, and other 
soils ; attacked by tent caterpillars ; wood of some value as fuel ; a shrub in dry 
hills (Var. frutescens Engelm.). 
Observations: California quail; California mule deer. 
