28 
[July 8, 1899. 
phant's foot and mullem also form part of their food, and 
late in the season they turn their attention to ragweed 
and consume great quantities of the seeds of this trouble- 
some species. In winter and spring large flocks feed to 
some extent upon the seeds of conifers and catkin- 
bearing trees, such as the sycamore and birch. In de- 
stroying the seeds of the gray birch on the edge of 
grass lands they do some good, for this tree has a habit 
of seeding adjacent pastures, which then grow up into 
a thicket of young saplings. 
The pine siskin and the redpoll linnet are two drab- 
gray birds related to the goldfinch, which feed largely 
upon seeds of conifers, sycamores, birches and alders, 
but also descend to the ground to eat weed seed. In 
winter they feed upon sow thistles, field asters and golden- 
rods. The redpoll linnet is known to destroy mullein 
seeds, and the pine siskin is often seen consuming quan- 
tities of seeds of chcckweed, lambs'-quarters and rag- 
weed. 
The common Eastern towhee, or chewink, and the 
green and the brown towhees of the far West are great 
scratchers, and there is little doubt but that they find 
many seeds that other birds fail to secure. Unfortunately 
their food habits have not been sufficiently studied to 
furnish any detailed account of their value as weed de- 
stroyers. 
The grosbeaks likewise have been insufficiently studied. 
The evening grosbeak and the rose-breasted grosbeak 
are known to eat seeds of ragweed, and the blue grosbeak 
Of rcdbird oE the South is abundant along hedgerows 
and briery tangles adjoining farms, and during the win- 
ter months does good work by feeding upon the seeds 
of such noxious plants as ragweed, pigeon grass, bind- 
weed and smartweed. 
Horned larks occur either as residents or winter vis- 
itants throughout the greater part of the United States. 
They are strictly terrestrial, and inhabit either open fields 
or grassy, gravelly or sandy plains. In midvvinter they 
may be found in flocks on plowed fields, where the land 
is lying fallow, picking up seeds of weeds which if left 
would germinate and cause trouble the following season. 
When thus employed, the larks select the same seeds 
as the cardinal grosbeak, but occasionally they also eat 
buttonweed and sorrel. 
The several species of blackbirds, although subsisting 
quite extensively upon weed seed, do considerable dam- 
age to crops. This is particularly noticeable in the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, where redwings, jrellowheads and crow 
blackbirds flock to the grainfields by the million. The 
ravages in the rice fields of the South by the bobolink 
or reedbird, in company with the redwings, are even more 
seirious. The rusty grackles, Brewer's blackbird and the 
Eowbird are less injurious. All these birds are fond of 
pigeon grass, paspalum, crab grass, pigweed, knot- 
weed and ragweed, and the eowbird also eats the seeds 
of wild sunflowers, gromwell, sorrel, mustard, chick- 
weed and thistle. More than 10 per cent, of the food 
of the crow blackbird, and more than 75 per cent, of that 
of the redwing, during the colder half of the year, con- 
sists of weed seed. 
The meadow lark has long been placed on the border 
line of game birds, but it is a mistake to class any 
bird as game when its usefulness and beauty so far sur- 
pass its value as food. The farmer cannot afford to dis- 
pense with the services of the meadow lark, for it busies 
itself all summer eating grasshoppers and noxious in- 
sects, and when autumn comes varies its diet with rag- 
weed, pigeon grass and other weeds, until in December 
these' noxious plants comprise 25 per cent, of its food. 
The ruffed grouse of the Eastern woodlands some- 
times eats small quantities of weed seed, while the prairie 
hen seeking its food in the open or near cultivated fields 
in the great agricultural region of the Central United 
States, does still more service. In the West and South- 
west the California Valley quail and Gambel's quail 
consume weed seeds, but they also commit wholesale 
depredations on fruit. The Eastern quail, or Bob 
White, on the contrary, seldom if ever causes the fruit 
grower any trouble, but does much good by destroying 
weed seed in fields where grain has been cut and a rank 
growth of weeds has taken its place. Seeds of rib grass, 
tickfoil and berries of nightshade are sometimes eaten, 
and pigeon grass and smartweed are frequently con- 
sumed in large quantities. The amount of grain found in 
the few stomachs thus far examined is surprisingly 
small, while the proportion of weed seed is astonish- 
ingly large, in some cases crops and gizzards being 
literally gorged with hundreds of seeds of ragweed. 
The mourning dove is abundant throughout much of 
the United States, and is especially common in stubble 
fields and waste places grown up to weeds. It is pre- 
eminently a seed eater, and although at times turning its 
attention to grain it nevertheless consumes an enormous 
' amount of weed seed. The crop of one dove secured m 
a rye field in Warner, Tenn., contained 7,Soo seeds of 
Oxalis striata. Just outside the District of Columbia the 
bird has been seen feeding in fields overgrown with 
pigeon grass and ragweed, and especially in old corn- 
fields, where smartweed and bindw^eed formed tangles 
of sufficient extent to injure the crop. In the Eastern 
States it has a peculiar habit of picking up pokeweed 
seeds and crushing them in its muscular stomach. Sev- 
eral weeds belonging to the genera Lithospermum, Oxalis 
and Euphorbia are also utilized as food to a somewhat 
lesser extent. In California the dove feeds upon the 
seeds of a leguminous weed known as turkey mullein. 
The habit is so well known in some localities that a 
botanist upon inquiring how he could collect some seeds 
of this plant was advised to shoot a few doves and open 
their crops. The ground dove of the. Southern States is 
very similar to the mourning dove in food habits, and 
probably does almost as much good in eradicating weeds. 
No less than fifty different birds act as weed destroyers, 
and the noxious plants which they help to eradicate num- 
ber more than three-score species. Some of these plants 
are much more in favor than others, while several are 
almost universally sought after. During the colder half 
of the year food is furnished for many species of birds by 
well-known and widely distributed weeds. _ 
The blackbirds, the bobolink, the dove and Iht Eng- 
■ lish sparrow, in spite of grain-eating _ procliviities, do 
much good by consuming large quantities of weed seed. 
Shore larks and grosbeaks also render considerable 
service while the meadow lark is even more beneficial. 
GoWftiicheg destroy weeds which are not touched by 
other birds, confining their attdclcs chiefly to one group 
of plants (the compositas), many of the members of which 
are serious pests. 
But the birds which accomplish most as weed destroy- 
ers are the score or more of native sparrows that flock 
to the weed patches in early autumn and remain until 
late spring. During cold weather they require an abun- 
dance of food to keep their bodies warm, and it is their 
habit to keep their stomachs and gullets heaping full. 
Often one of these birds is found to have eaten 300 seeds 
of pigeon grass or 500 seeds of lamb's-quarters or pig- 
weed. Because of their gregarious and terrestrial habits, 
they are efficient consumers of seeds of ragweed, pigeon 
grass, crab grass, bindweed, purslane, smartweed and 
pigweed. In short, these birds are little weeders, whose 
work is seldom noted but always felt. 
Martha's Vineyard Heath Hens. 
Boston, June 26. — Editor Forest and Stream: Some 
time ago when we had the "prairie chicken revival" in 
Forest and Stream, I offered a few notes about the 
prairie chickens (heath hens) of Martha's Vineyard, and 
asked a few questions in the hope that some one could and 
would tell us whether it is history or myth that birds from 
the West have ever been hberated on the island. Again I 
proffer the question. A good friend of mine, Avho knows 
my interest in the Martha's Vineyard bird, and whose 
duties often require him to cross unfrequented parts of 
the island, occasionally sends me word of his seeing the 
"heath hen." 
The other day I received a little pasteboard box by mail. 
It was very neat in appearance and raised the momentary 
hope that some one had sent me some curious trinket 
from the jeweler. 
On opening it I found on a layfir of white cOttQii.a card 
whereon was inscribed, "Sacred td the memOr> 0 .one 
heath hen chick." 
On lifting a layer of the cotton I found, lying in state 
on another layer, sure enough, a lovely little chick, 
downy and delicate and yellow — and unmistakably a young 
prairie chjcken; 
I sent it at once to a taxidermist for careful preserva- 
tion — a relic of a vanishing race — and awaited further 
developments by mail. 
The next day brought the following, which I think does 
credit to the author: 
"Edgartown, Mass., June 15, — Dear Mr. Ames: 1 send 
you by mail with this a small box containing a chick 
heath hen, which I ran over this P. M., brealdng its 
leg, necessitating killing it. Saw seven; caught four as 
cute little chaps as you ever laid eyes on. This sample 
will perhaps show the color of the older bird. I was 
tempted to send you a pair of live ones, but the cries of 
the mother bird softened my heart, and I let them go." 
In my letter to the writer of the foregoing I did not fail 
to commend his kind-heartedness. It would need very 
skillful management to keep the little ones alive, and I 
would much prefer to think of theni growing up under 
their mother's care to help perpetuate their race on the 
island where its continuance is to me one of the most 
interesting of ornithological facts. Mrs. Eckstorm, whose 
series of letters, of remarkable charm and value, on "The 
Maine Woods." and written when she was Fanny Hardy, 
old readers of Forest and Stream will remember, tells 
me of her strong belief that the story of the liberation of 
Western prairie chickens on Martha's. Vineyard is true, 
and that it is now practically impossible to find these birds 
of undeniably original stock. 
I would be thankful for good ground for believing the 
contrary. 
I should also be glad to be able to fix approximately the 
original range of the bird. I have no doubt that it in- 
cluded Nantucket and Long Island and the pine barrens 
of New Jersev and have seen statements that it once 
ranged along the southern border of Connecticut, but 
never till recently heard of it in Massachusetts. Some 
weeks ago a writer in the Springfield Republican, who 
showed much knowledge of the fauna of Massachusetts 
in the early times, spoke of the heath hen as one of the 
game birds frequenting at that time the region about Mt. 
Holyoke and Mt. Tom. 
It was this region Avhere the wild turkey lingered 
longest, and where some other rare forms of bird life 
— like the duck hawk — still survive, C. H. Ames. 
A Buffalo Chase in Central Park^ 
One of the female buffaloes in Central Park menagerie 
escaped this morning and roamed for an hour around the 
park. She was confined in the regular buffalo paddock, 
and ran by her keeper, Philip Holmes, as he was feeding 
the other animals in the inclosure. The bison knocked 
Holmes over, walked over him, and ran into the shed and 
out on the driveway. From this she ran a little way to 
a chain which separated the driveway from a walk, jumped 
over the chain like an antelope, and kept straight on down 
the bridle path. A number of children who had seen the 
buffalo knock the keeper down somewhat frightened the 
animal by shouting. This annoyed the beast, and when 
the children followed her toward the bridle path she 
broke into a run. At the head of the bridle path is a gate 
6ft. high, which the buffalo took like a deer, and started 
down the path toward Fifty-ninth street and Fifth avenue. 
The buffalo kept on the bridle path till she approached 
the big entrance at Fifty-ninth street and Fifth avenue, 
where she took the Drive, and dashed out, scattering the 
people right and left. She kept on to Eighth avenue, when 
she saw the green again, and left the asphalt for the Drive. 
By this time a great crowd was following the beast. When 
she went into the park again there was another crowd to 
receive her. But she paid no attention to it. and kept 
on the West Drive, scaring a bicyclist so that he ran into- 
the crowd and wrecked his wheel. The animal then 
made a little detour and came out on the sheep green 
among the sheep. She seemed to like the grazing, and 
walked in and out among the sheep, contentedly eating 
the grass. The crowd, meanwhile, which now seemed 
not to be afraid, gathered around and watched the novel 
■iight. The oolice came running up, but a minute too late. 
The crowd had not been quiet enough, and their shouts 
and cries to the buffalq an(J tg Qm another frightened 
her, a;ild she made off again just as some keepers came ' 
up with ropes made into lassoes. \ 
The buffalo kept on over the green to the Mall, where- , 
she scared several hundred people gathered there. She' 
did not seem to want to frighten any one, as she only, 
nosed around curiously. Presently she wandered over to ' 
the Ramble, with the keepers and policemen and crowd, 
out of breath, following her. Then she started for the 
Bow Bridge, and made for a big body of water, which she ■ 
crossed with evident enjoyment. 
She then appeared on the other side of the park, and 
came out near the conservatory lake, where the children 
sail their boats. The water again attracted her and she 
plunged in. She did not attempt to come out for a while, 
and a big crowd gathered about. Capt. England had as- 
sumed charge of the pursuit at this time, and at this ' 
point he pushed the crowd back some distance from the 
lake. 
For twenty minutes the buffalo' swam about, to the in- 
tense amusement of everyone. She was not at all violent, , 
and Keeper Snyder at last went close to the edge of the 
water and tossed his lasso toward the animal. The first 
few throws were unsuccessful, but he finally managed to i 
get the noose over the buffalo's horns. Half a dozen ' 
policemen got hold of the rope and forced the creature to ' 
the shore. Snyder threw another noose around her jaw 
and head, and more ropes were placed around her body. \ 
Fifteen policemen tugged at the forward ropes' ends, and 
fifteen more took hold of the rear ends, while the keepers 
and a dozen citizens helped them out. A cheer went up 1' 
as the crowd saw that the capture had been made, and 
nearly a thousand people followed the buffalo down the^ 
Drive to the paddock. The animal required some urging 
at times, but at length she reached the inclosure. When 
she was finally shoved into the shed she ran out into the' 
open-air ground at once, and there was a lively scattering j 
among the keepers, one of them making haste to climb the 
fence. But she soon quieted down and the crowd dis- 
persed. — New York Evening Post, June 28. 
Labrador Eggers. , 
Kennebunkport, Me. — Editor Forest and Stream: It 
was my privilege to make the acquaintance of an old 
gentleman who had followed the sea the greater part of 
his life. He had been in many ports and seen the greater 
part of the whole Atlantic coast. Like many others of 
this kind, he had many long yarns to spin. Among others- 
he was wont to reel on was of a cruise to "the Labrador,"' 
as be called it, as skipper of a fisherman. They ran short 
of provisions, and as it was the time of year the birds 
were laying, they went ashore and broke all the eggs they 
could find for a mile along the shore, destroying thou- 
sands. Then for several consecutive mornings they col- 
lected the freshly-laid eggs, and not only got all they 
wished for present necessity, but took several barrels home 
for the crew. They also killed many birds, as these were 
disinclined to leave their nests and could be easily got af.. 
He stated that there were then many Nova Scotia vessels 
there that made a business of it, carrying the eggs back 
and distributing' them among their neighbors at a small 
price. The eggs were also packed to be kept some time;: 
and in short, the eggers literally stripped all the territory 
they could get to. I remember his stating that the same 
thing was done from Newfoundland to Maine, along the 
whole coast line of the Provinces. This was thirty years 
ago or more; and fishermen have recently informed me 
that this practice is still carried on, perhaps on a smaller 
scale, but nevertheless it exists. I beHeve the Enghsh 
Government made an effort to check it a number of years 
ago, but a very ineffectual one. The case I have told of 
was at a time when such a thing as the value of the birds 
was not thought of. Now it is different. The rapid de- 
crease in their numbers is a thing that is mdisputable and 
truly deplorable. O. H. H. 
Some TWngfS I Have Seen. 
When I was a boy I lived in the town of Adams, Mass.,' 
in that part of the town now called South Adams. I use<j 
to drive cows to pasture every night and morning. One 
night, as I was driving the cows home from the pasture, J; 
noticed that at one particular place in the path, a large 
mud puddle, they acted frightened. I hurried on to see what 
•was the matter, and there, in the path, lay a large stripedl 
snake, with its mouth wide open. A great many little 
snakes were there too, and they all ran down her throat 
as fast as they could. Some of them swam the mudi 
puddle to get to her. As soon as they were all safely in- 
side her mouth, she disappeared in a hole under the roots! 
of a cycamore or buttonball tree that stood close beside 
the path. I did not molest her in any way, but let he: 
go with her babies. 
There was no grass for the young ones to hide in, a- 
she lay in the bare path. Here is one instance of an oldi 
snake and young ones being seen together. L 
When I was older I worked in a cotton mill in thm 
same town, in what was called Brown's mill, and one das 
when a bale of cotton was opened there was a live snalM 
found in it. It was 15 or i6in, long, of a slate color 01^ 
the back, and very light on the belly, and it had a red ring! 
around its neck. The snake was very lively and showedjl 
fight. It was killed, and I do not know whether it waal 
venomous of not; .bttt I Iv^ye always thought I shoul<« 
like to know. - ^ 
When I was a young man of twenty-two I spent ^ 
year in Illinois, La Moille township. Bureau county. Old! 
day, as my nephew and I were riding along the publflB 
road, George suddenly exclaimed : "See that snake !" 1 
looked, and saw a large striped snake. We stopped anc 
George jumped out of the wagon and killed the snake, cut- 1 
ting it in two with a spade. When we came back past thti 
place — it was but a short time that we were gone- — -Georgf | 
made the same exclamation. "See that snake !" It was e 
strange sight. Around, and upon the snake that we bar, 
killed there were a great number of little ones squirming 
about, I have no doubt ' that the little ones were the 
young of the dead snake. We were not partial to snakes; 
so we killed them all. 
One day I went across' the line into Lee county tc 
hunt ducks. I Avas hunting beside a small pond on the 
, prairie, when I saw a strange snake, of a kind that 1 
^av§ R§Yer s^en Ijefor? nor sm^, -It lay stretgtie4 gut or 
