Nov. II, 1905.1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
398 
[single plant of one of these species may mature 100,000 
{seeds in a season. This process, if unchecked, may 
'produce in the spring of the third year 10,000,000,000 
iweeds. The problem of weed destruction is perennial 
iin every land; indeed, soil culture may be called a never 
:.ceasing war against weeds. Of the birds that aid the 
ifarmer. in this struggle the bobwhite, the native spar- 
irows, and the mourning dove are the most efficient. 
{They attack weeds at that vital stage — the seed period 
j — hence their work, especially against the annuals which 
; depend on seeds for perpetuation, is of enormous prac- 
I tical value. 
i The bobwhite is pre-eminently a seed eater, 52.83 
per cent, of its food for the year consisting of seeds. 
[The bulk of these are the seeds of plants belonging to 
the general category of weeds. Many of them are in- 
jurious plants with which the farmer is constantly at 
strife; others are less noxious and some are seldom, if 
ever, troublesome. Sixty-odd species are known to be 
eaten, and thorough observations would probably raise 
the number to a hundred or more. The food of no 
other bird with which the writer is acquainted is so 
varied. At Marshall Hall and in Mecklenburg and 
Westmoreland counties, Va., a somewhat detailed study 
was made of the weed seed eaten by ' the bird. At 
Marshall Hall fields of wheat stubble grown up to 
ragweed were favorite feeding grounds. Among others 
found there were buttonweed seeds, each like a minia- 
ture horsehoof, complete even to the frog; twenty or 
thirty of these were sometimes contained in a single 
stomach. A number of birds shot on wheat stubble 
had eaten largely of bastard pennyroyal seeds, which 
are rough and resemble blackberry seeds. Goldfinches 
and other seed eaters also find these palatable. Along 
ditches the abundant grasses — witch grass and spread- 
. ing 'panicum — provide the birds with shade in summer 
and a continuous harvest through the winter. The 
grain, inclosed in a cylindrical sheath which opens at 
the top, is rattled out, a few kernels at a time, by the 
strong fall and winter winds. Along the same ditches, 
especially in damper places among trees and bushes, 
another plant, the jewel weed, flourishes. Its_ ripened 
seeds, hurled from the opening pods by elastic coiled 
I spring-like valves, are eaten in large numbers by the 
i bobwhite. The jewel-weed cotyledons are inclosed in 
I a plain seed coat; but the cotyledons themselves are 
[ of a delicate robin’s-egg blue, rounded and colored like 
I tiny turquoises. 
Several weeds injurious to truck crops are useful to 
the bobwhite. In a field where crab grass as a thick 
' mat had overrun a patch of yams a covey spent much 
time gathering the seeds. In another place where 
I lamb’s-quartprs was six feet high and pigweed still 
s higher, a flock of busy weeders could almost always be 
. flushed at certain hours. Patches of green foxtail 
grass often attracted a covey for an evening feed. In 
the northern part of the United States this plant grows 
' rank, and in many sections furnishes the bird its main 
food' for September and October. Near a stream in 
a truck flat was a forest of giant ragweed from 8 to 
10 feet high and here bobwhites were frequently seen 
' picking up scattered seeds. Their favorite weed seed, 
however, is the common, or smaller, ragweed. At 
Marshall Hall this weed springs up, not only on truck 
‘ land, but most luxuriantly in wheat stubble after harvest, 
covering the field with a rank growth 3 feet high. When 
abundant, its seeds are eaten in the fall more than 
; those of any other plant, supplying a little, over 16 per 
i cent of the total food during October, November, and 
I January. The fruits beset with a crowning circle of 
' spines are taken into the crop whole. In the stomach 
' the brown oval seeds are freed from the spiny outer 
coat, crushed by the powerful muscular _ action, and 
made to yield their rich meat to the digestive juices. 
In Mecklenburg county, Va., during the last week of 
December, 1902, a covey of a dozen bobwhites resorted 
to a cornfield to feed on the shining black seeds of 
smartweed, often a troublesome plant on low ground. 
In Westmoreland county, November, 1901, bobwhites 
fed freely on seeds of climbing false buckwheat, which 
festooned' all the shrubbery along streams and afforded 
the birds admirable cover as well as food. The seeds 
of knot grass, a species related to the smartweeds and 
false buckwheat, also contribute to the food of the 
bobwhite. 
The fondness of bobwhites for leguminous seeds has 
already been mentioned. On the edge of woodlands, 
along hedgerows, and to some extent in open ground, 
they consume large quantities of seeds of tick-trefoil, 
Japan clover, and bush clover, and their crops have 
been found distended with these seeds. They also find 
the partridge pea massed in great patches_ at Marshall 
Hall and in .some places in Virginia, but it appears to 
be of less importance to them. A few stomachs con- 
tained as many as 100 of these seeds. In several sec- 
tions the butterfly pea was eaten in about the same 
proportion as the partridge pea. The hog peanut, like 
the butterfly pea, a trailing plant bearing a small gray- 
ish-brown bean, furnished several times as much food 
as the partridge pea and butterfly pea combined. Of 
these seeds 600 are sometimes eaten at a meal. South- 
ern birds relish the Florida coffee seeds ' and lupine 
seeds. Seeds from locust pods are also frequently 
eaten by the bobwhite. 
Ini the northern part of its range the bobwhite has 
been reported as feeding on seeds of the ill-scented 
skunk cabbage. Four of eight birds shot in October, 
1902, at Wilmington, Mass., by Edward A; Preble, of 
the Biological Survey, had eaten them. These seeds 
are somewhat flattened and subspherical, and average 
about three-eighths of an inch in diameter. Two crops 
were filled with them, one containing ten of these great 
seeds. This plant, abundant in northern swamps, may 
furnish food for birds in game preserves. 
Seeds of different species of violets are often eaten. 
In some cases the three-valved seed pods, each valve 
containing a dozen or more seeds, had been swallowed 
entire. Seeds make up 50.36 per cent, of tbe bobwhite’s 
food, and a cpiantitative study of it shows that the grass 
family contributes 9.46 per cent.; leguminous plants, 
15.52 per cent.; smartweed and other polygonums, 4.41 
per cent.; ragweed, 7.28 per cent.; and miscellaneous 
weeds, 13.69 per cent. The number of seeds eaten at 
a meal may suggest the value of the bird as a weed 
destroyer. As many as 200 to 300 sr: .’■•’veed seeds, 
500 seeds of red sorrel, and 700 seeds of three-seeded 
mercury h ve been taken at a meal. Crops and 
stomachs crammed with nothing but , ragweed seeds 
are often found. A bird shot Nov. 6, 1902, at Marshall 
Hall, had eaten 1,000 ragweed akenes; another killed 
there the previous November had eaten as many seeds 
of crab grass. Birds shot in Mecklenburg county, "Va., 
contained about 2,000 leguminous seeds, mainly tick- 
trefoil, and various kinds of bush clover. A bird shot 
in October, 1902, at Pine Brook, N. J., had eaten 5,000 
seeds of green foxtail grass, and one killed on Christ- 
mas day, 1901, at Kinsale, "Va., had taken about 10,000 
pigweed seeds. 
Mast, including acorns of the swamp oak (Quercus 
palustris), the white oak. (Q. alba), beechnuts, the blue 
httch. {Car pinns caroUniana) , and the chestnut, amounts 
to 2.47 per cent, of the food of the year. 
In the pine lands of Florida the bobwhite freely eats 
the seeds of the long-leaf pine {Pinus palustris) . Of the 
thirty-nine birds from Walton county (November, 
December, and January, 1902 and 1903), twenty-one had 
their crops and stomachs mainly filled with this nutri- 
tious food. They had usually clipped off the wings of 
the samaras close to the large seeds. Several crops 
were full of germinating pine seeds, some of the embryos 
having cotyledons two inches long. In the region about 
Washington the seeds of the scrub pine {Pinus virgini- 
ana) also are eaten tO' a small extent. The fact that these 
seeds are a good winter food should be remembered by 
holders of game preserves. Observations show that 
the key seeds of the maple also are eaten, though much 
less extensively. 
[to be continued.] 
The Wild Pigeons. 
St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 28. — Editor Forest and Stream: ■ 
The query of Guatemala in your issue of Oct. 21 regard- 
ing the disappearance of the pigeons and the statement 
that “when a boy I lived in North Carolina, and in the 
year 1869-70 millions of these birds used to pass south ; 
and I cannot remember ever seeing these birds on return , 
north; did they take another route?” is of interest in that 
it confirms a dim recollection of my own, and one I have 
tried to verify lately, and with some success, viz., that we, . 
whose point of view was in the Mississippi valley, saw 
these birds invariably in the spring and passing from . 
south to north (I refer to the general flight), and I do . 
not recall ever having seen them south-bound. 
In my opinion, they did take widely different routes 
and made an oblong or triangular flight/ passing due 
north to their breeding grounds in the spring, then by . 
easy, stages, as the young became stronger, to the east; . 
and with the approach of fall made one grand flight back , 
to the Gulf States for the winter. 
That these birds were pilated, as are wild geese and 
many other migratory birds, I am convinced; and if ever 
the leaders were blown out of their course and into the 
Gulf or the Atlantic, there they surely perished, for where 
they were led there went the flight. 
Granting that every published authority is to the con- 
trary, also conceding that, say, 500 millions or more, were 
netted and shot up to the time of the disappearance of 
the birds, I venture to say that seventy-five per cent, of 
the vast flock of these beautiful birds perished in some 
way other than by man’s slaughter, and suddenly. 
Had disease killed them at their breeding grounds, or 
where they passed the winter, we would have known it 
long ago. 
Blown into the sea they would have been devoured by 
fish in schools as vast in number as the birds themselves, 
every trace of them extinguished. 
Personally, I would like to see this subject threshed 
out in a discussion similar to the Kipling “Red Gods” 
and “raw right-angled log jams,” etc. 
Perhaps some of Us may end up with the “rare left- 
handed jim jams,” but what’s the odds; therefore, I 
affirm “the pigeon died a-tryin’ to swim.” 
W. D. Kenyon. 
The Linnacan Society of New York. 
A regular meeting of the Society will be held at the 
American Museum of Natural History, Seventy-seventh, 
street and Eighth avenue, on Tuesday evening, Nov. 28, 
at 8:15 o’clock. Mr. William Lovell Finley, of Portland, 
Oreg., will lecture before the Society on “Western Bird 
Life,” illustrated with stereopticon views. Special postal 
card notice later. C. G. Abbott. 
Criticises Minnesota. 
Baltimore, Md. — Editor Forest and Stream: This sea- 
son I became interested in the Minnesota game laws, as a 
foreigner to Minnesota, but as a shooter who. wished to 
shoot within the borders of that sovereignty, and who 
was ready to pay the full admission fee — called game 
license — for the misdemeanor of being a non-resident, al- 
though the non-residents, citizens of the United States, 
enjoy the beatitudes flowing from Article IV., _ Section 2, 
of the Constitution of the United States, which squints 
one eye wisely and declares : “The citizens of each State 
shall "be entitled to .all privileges and immunities of citi- 
zens in the several States.” 
“But what is the Constitution among friends?” a great 
man once upon a time asked. He hadn’t read the game 
But the foregoing is not the real issue, therefore the 
gentle reader will please see that it is stricken froin his 
mind, for we have matters of importance to tackle, i. e., 
the game laws of the foreign and sovereign State of 
Minnesota. Section 28, of the Minnesota Act of i 9 o 5 > 
according- to the Game Laws in Brief, reads as follows 
concerning dogs : “Shooting with Dogs. — * * * The 
use or running of either pointer or setter dogs in fields or 
upon lands frequented by or in which game birds may 
be found during the month of August, or at any time 
during the open season for killing game birds, and the 
keeping or maintaining of any dog at or abput any hunt- 
ing camp or lumber camp used by hunters, situated in any 
locality frequented by deer, moose or caribou is hereby 
prohibited and made unlawful.” 
The sub-head of this section is to be viewed amiably, 
because of its sociability. “Shooting with dogs” signifies 
that the dog was shooting, too. The sportsman-like 
phrase is shooting over dogs, a sportsman shoots zaith 
his companions, but over his dogs. Nevertheless, when 
a foreigner from Baltimore shoots in the sovereign State 
of Minnesota, having paid his license to shoot according 
to law, he must shoot with his dogs. If he shoots over 
them he violates the majesty of the sovereignty. 
But note that the law, wise reader, specifies “pointer or 
setter dogs” in respect to the use or runnings of them, as 
quoted above. ■ _ 
Now, my dogs were droppers, therefore did not come 
under the law, in section 28, which reads : _ “Any dog 
or dogs used in violation of any of the provisions of this 
section is hereby declared to be and is a public nuisance, 
and it shall be lawful for any person to kill any dog or 
dogs so being used.” 
My dogs, being droppers, that is to say, a cross breed 
between a setter and a pointer, were neither the one nor 
the other, therefore they did not come under the provi- 
sions of the act. Notwithstanding all that, a grass-fed 
native of Minnesota assured me that under the_ law, as 
administered in his State, the judge would consider that 
I had violated the law twice in the body of each dog, and 
that I would be fined twice accordingly, once _ for the 
pointer half, once for the setter half. I called his atten- 
tion to the law which carefully states “pointer or setter,” 
therefore if I had both pointer and setter I was not vio- 
lating the alternative law at all. If the legal Solons had 
contemplated both, the law would have read, but does not 
read, “pointer or setter, or both.” He then unfolded a 
pastoral grin, and declared that the judges read the law 
and interpreted it according to time-honored custom in 
IMinnes.ota. Now, I contend that a judge has no right to 
read into the law such personal vagaries as inay_ please 
him, and which may force a conviction. I maintain that 
my dogs, being cross-bred, are exempt from the statute. 
If the sovereign people of Minnesota could determine 
which half of my dog was pointer and which half setter, 
they might kill one half, but not the other ; for the law is 
alternative, because of the “or,” h e., pointer or setter. 
The wise legal lights of the Minnesota Legislature are 
respectfully referred to the Scotch precedent in a similar 
case. Two Scotch boys were presented with a collie 
puppy, each owning half of it. Said young Sandy to his 
partner, “"Which half will you take?” 
“I’ll take the head half,” was the reply. 
“Well,” said Sandy, “you’ll have to feed your own 
half.’’ 
With -this legal wisdom for guidance, I maintain that, 
unless the bench of Minnesota could have differentiated 
the setter from the pointer in my droppers, my dogs were 
entirely outside the pale of the law. 
Again, on a point of grammar, I quote the following 
from section 28 : “Any dog or dogs * * * _ is hereby 
declared to be,” etc. Mr. Editor, please explain the “is” 
in its grammatical relations. I am sure that the Legisla- 
ture of Minnesota would do well to consult with Game 
Commissioner Fullerton before it again sets out to tinker 
at law-making, for I am sure he will advise them wisely 
concerning droppers, setter or pointer (or both) dogs, 
and is as a singular verb referring to a plural subject, 
and also that hounds and cur dogs of all degrees are quite 
as destructive if permitted to self-hunt as “is” dogs shoot- 
ing with any person. Also he should advise them that 
anyone, taking dogs into the garden or the orchard in the 
close season is liable to the penalty, because they are 
“upon lands frequented by or in which game birds may 
be found during the month of August.” As a native free 
citizen of the foreign State of Maryland, I may sign 
myself. Native Foreigner. 
Trapper Killed in His Bear Trap. 
Ogdensburg, N. Y., Nov. i. — A trapper named 
Lacoeque, of Wolfestown, was accidentally caught and 
killed in one of his own traps, a deadfall for bears. It 
is supposed that in changing the bait he set off the trap, 
which fell on him with such force as to break his neck. 
He had been away from home several days before his 
body was found, 
