to Urn ?• Brown olalmod that birds had caused damge here amounting to 
2000 bushels* This apparently was to be charged equally to llallards a nd 
to blaokblrds* Threshing was going on at the time of my Tlslt but 1 was 
able to examine about 40 acres of rice still In the shook* The shocks of 
rice in this field had been frozen In before ducks began to week la tbe^ 
so tliat only a very fow haa been torn down* Thsrs wore amny signs of 
where the daoics had been worlclng around and olambering over the shoohs 
and rnaay tlallard feathers and amoh duoic dung composed alnost entirely of 
rioe hulls was scattered about* In some oases the cap sheaves on the 
sbooics had been lauch flattened, while straw had been pulled out and tram- 
pled down all around the shoohs* Praotloally all of the exposed grain had 
been taican* Mr* McMillan stated that duolcs began to work In here about 
ten days previous (1* e* Dec* 7-10} and that Mallards oume In hordes both 
« 
during day and at night* They were aooompanled by great flooks of blaok- 
blrda* Men were stationed in the fields to shoot and did some good In 
driving the birds out but still the loss was severe* On Deoaiober 16, 
twelve mott bad shot in this field and sinoe then duoks had given little 
trouble* 
fi* A* Soott claimed loss from Mallards in shocked rioe but this 
grain had all been threebad so that the fields were bare* Ko estimate 
was placed on the asiount of damage here* 
The Ml ton Kioe and Land Ctunpany had lost oonsiderable grain in a 
field of 40 sores the damage boing attributed equally to Mallards and 
blaokbirds* This grain w&s still in the field but 1 was unable to gat in 
to it as it was beginning 
Besides those mentioned the following are said to have lost more 
