644 
picious, however, and on being approached 
takes flight with loud cries. It is noisy 
and restless, but fortunately most of its 
activities result in benefit to man. The 
food is of the same general nature as 
that of the upland plover, but is more 
varied. The killdeer feeds upon beetles, 
grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, bugs, 
caddis flies, dragon flies, centipedes, spi- 
ders, ticks, oyster worms, earthworms, 
snails, crabs and other crustacea. Among 
the beetles consumed are such pests as 
the alfalfa weevil, cotton-boll weevil, 
clover-root weevil, clover-leaf weevil, pine 
weevil, billbugs, white grubs, wireworms, 
and leaf beetles. The bird also devours 
cotton worms, cotton cutworms, horse- 
flies, mosquitoes, cattle ticks, and craw- 
fish. One stomach contained hundreds of 
larvae of the saltmarsh mosquito, one of 
the most troublesome species. The kill- 
deer preys extensively upon insects that 
are annoying to man and injurious to his 
stock and crops, and this should be 
enough to remove it from the list of 
game birds and insure its protection. 
Upland Plover 
Bartramia longicauda 
Length, 12 inches. The only plainly 
colored shorebird which occurs east of 
the plains and inhabits exclusively dry 
fields and hillsides. 
Range 
Breeds from Oregon, Utah, Oklahoma, 
Indiana and Virginia, north to Alaska; 
Winters in South America. 
Habits and Economic Status 
This, the most terrestrial of our waders, 
is shy and wary, but it has the one weak- 
ness of not fearing men on horseback 
or in a vehicle. One of these methods 
of approach, therefore, is nearly always 
used by the sportsman, and, since the 
bird is highly prized as a table delicacy, 
it has been hunted to the verge of exter- 
mination. As the upland plover is strictly 
beneficial, it should no longer be classed 
as a game bird and allowed to be shot. 
Ninety-seven per cent of the food of this 
Species consists of animal forms, chiefly 
of injurious and neutral Species, The 
vegetable food is mainly weed seeds. Al- 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
most half of the total subsistence is made 
up of grasshoppers, crickets and weevils. 
Among the weevils eaten are the cotton- 
boll weevil, greater and lesser clover-leaf 
weevils, cowpea weevils, and billbugs. 
This bird devours also leaf beetles wire 
worms, white grubs, army worms, cotton 
worms, cotton cutworms. sawfly larvae, 
horseflies, and cattle ticks. In brief, it 
injures no crop, but consumes a host of 
the worst enemies of agriculture. 
Black Tern 
Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis 
Length, 10 inches. In autumn occurs 
as a migrant on the east coast of the 
United States, and then is in white and 
gray plumage. During the breeding sea- 
son it is confined to the interior, is chiefly 
black, and is the only dark tern occurring 
inland. 
Range 
Breeds from California, Colorado, Mis- 
souri, and Ohio, north to Central Canada; 
winters from Mexico to South America: 
migrant in the Eastern United States. 
Habits and Economic Status 
This tern, unlike most of its relatives, 
passes much of its life on fresh-water 
lakes and marshes of the interior. Its 
nests are placed among the tules and 
weeds, on floating vegetation, or on musk- 
rat houses. It lays from two to four 
eggs. Its food is more varied than that 
of any other tern. So far as known it 
preys upon no food fishes, but feeds ex- 
tensively upon such enemies of fish as 
dragon fly nymphs, fish-eating beetles, and 
crawfishes. Unlike most of its family, it 
devours a great variety of insects, many 
of which it catches as it fiies. Dragon 
flies, May flies, grasshoppers, predaceous 
diving beetles, scarabaeid beetles, leaf 
beetles, gnats, and other flies are the 
principal kinds preyed upon. Fishes of 
little economic value, chiefly minnows 
and mummichogs, were found to compose 
only a little more than 19 per cent of the 
contents of 145 stomachs. The great con- 
Sumption of insects by the black tern 
places it among the beneficial species 
worthy of protection. 
