62 BULLETIN 107, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The laws enacted in the State of Utah for the protection of bird 
life are, on the whole, adequate and well enforced, and the love for 
bird life by the people of Utah has been a powerful agency in making 
this possible. Since the writer's investigations in 1911-12 a law was 
passed (effective March 11, 1913) giving protection to one of the 
effective enemies of the alfalfa weevil — Brewer's blackbird. How- 
ever, during the present crisis of the insect outbreak, it appears wise 
to suggest that added protection be given to another enemy of the 
weevil, and that there be removed from the statute books a bounty 
law on a third. 
The species deserving added protection, for a short period at 
least, that its good work in the suppression of the weevil may continue 
unimpaired, is the valley quail. Its numbers at present throughout 
most of the alfalfa area are too limited to threaten serious harm to 
grain crops. In fact, from what was learned regarding the food 
habits of this bird in relation to the weevil, it is far too scarce for 
the best interests of the Utah farmer. A shorter open season or even 
absolute protection for a few years would rapidly increase its num- 
bers to a point where it could do effective work on the insect. 
Eemoval of the bounty law on the English sparrow is recom- 
mended, not so much because the bird requires added protection, as 
for the reason that this law, as is the case with most laws of this 
nature, utterly fails to materially reduce the number of these birds, 
and at the same time it has been the reason for the destruction of many 
birds of other and beneficial species. A reduction in the numbers of 
the sparrow, if desired, can be much more effectively accomplished 
either by the efforts of individual farmers or by the employment of 
competent men to make a thorough and extensive campaign of trap- 
ping, poisoning, or nest destruction. TThere chicken feed can be 
protected and where grain fields will not be jeopardized these birds 
may well be allowed to continue unmolested their good work on the 
alfalfa weevil. 
