254 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
Quail (Colinus virginianus) have been introduced as game birds. Both have 
thrived. The pheasant is very abundant, averaging at least a pair to each 
twenty acres. The quail are abundant in the river bottoms and are beginning 
to be common in the higher parts of the tract. 
To sum up : — The following species have prospered greatly in the newly 
irrigated territory; — Killdeer, Mourning Dove, Arkansas Kingbird, Bullock 
Oriole, Brewer Blackbird, Merrill Song Sparrow, Bank Swallow, Western 
Robin, Ring-necked Pheasant and Quail. 
To get a general idea of the actual increase in numbers of the birds 
through irrigation, the following table based on the previous estimates is 
given. The figures, as I have stated at the beginning of the article, are given 
for what they are worth in an attempt to substitute something more exact for 
indefinite adjectives. 
Before 
irrigation 
After irrigation 
Killdeer 
6,000 
Mourning Dove 
6,200 
Burrowing Owl 
2,000 
2,000 
Arkansas Kingbird 
1,000 
Bullock Oriole 
1,000 
Meadowlark 
2,000 
12,400 
Brewer Blackbird 
Horned Lark 
8,000 
10,000 
Song Sparrow 
10,000 
Bank Swallow 
2,000 
Sage Thrasher 
1,000 
2,000 
Pheasant 
6,200 
Quail 
2,000 
Other species 
10,000 
20,000 
Total 
23,000 
80,800 
All the species common now appear to be beneficial to agriculture with 
the possible exception of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, which perhaps might be 
classified with those species benefiting by irrigation, though I do not know 
that it nests away from the river. It is apparently increasing in numbers and 
no small bird is safe from its daring evolutions under orchard trees and 
through thickets. 
The Sage Thrashers, as I have described previously in The Auk, nest in the 
sage brush but later bring their young into the irrigated areas where they live 
largely on small fruit. As these do not go in flocks larger than the family 
group, and are very local in their habitat, any family that becomes a nuisance 
can easily be shot out, thereby stopping any further thrasher damages for the 
season. Robins, if permitted, will usually take the sweet cherry crop, but that 
crop in this part of the valley is killed four years out of five by the frost, and 
the slight damage from the Robins is more than made up by the good they do. 
One of the potential pests which hangs over the Yakima Valley is the Al- 
falfa caterpillar {Eurymus eurytheme). During my first summer in the val- 
ley these were abundant, but not enough so to seriously injure the crop. Dur- 
ing the second haying that summer the leaves and litter about the stacks while 
harvesting the hay were fairly alive with the caterpillars, but since then they 
have not been so abundant. The Meadowlarks and Pheasants have apparently 
