BOARD OF GAME AND FISTI COMMISSIONERS 
87 
its indifferent merits as a table delicacy having saved it from the fate of its more 
savory relatives. The great flocks of the Golden, and the smaller flocks of the 
Black-bellied Plovers that once swept across the state in their annual migrations 
are now represented by only a few stray individuals. The Ringnecked Plover is 
an uncommon migrant. The Piping Plover is a very rare straggler. 
Plovers, when abundant, are of very great value to the agriculturist and 
horticulturist. They seek the open uplands and there feed almost entirely upon 
insects among which are many of the worst enemies of field and orchard 
crops. Edward H. Forbush in Game Birds, Water Fowl and Shore Birds con¬ 
cludes his article on the Golden Plover, which is largely in the nature of a 
memorial, with these words: “Every farmer knows, or should know, that the 
grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, white grubs, cutworms and wire worms which the 
Plover eat are reckoned among the most destructive of all pests in the havfield, 
grain field or garden, and it must be evident to all thoughtful people that the 
immense flocks of Golden Plover which formerly swept north and south ovei 
the fertile plains of this country would have done great service to agriculture 
had they been protected during their flights up and down the continent.” The 
moral to be drawn is that we should do everything possible to save the remain¬ 
ing birds of this and other species, not especially because they are game birds but 
because they are of even greater value in other ways. Of the service rendered bv 
the Killdeer, which is still with us commonly, Forbush says: “Prof. Samuel Aughey 
examined the stomach contents of nine of these birds taken from May to Sep¬ 
tember in Nebraska, and found 258 locusts and 190 other insects. Only one had 
taken grain, and that only a few waste kernels. Nash states that its food con¬ 
sists of earthworms and insects, of which small beetles form the greater parr, 
and that a brood of these birds and their parents will relieve a farm of an enor¬ 
mous number of insects daily. He has known stomachs of this species to be com¬ 
pletely filled with weevils taken from orchards. Eaton found it feeding on 
grasshoppers, beetles, eaterpillers and a few water insects. Throughout the country, 
wherever the Killdeer is found, it is very destructive to weevils, some species of 
which cost the farmers of the United States millions of dollars annually. The 
Killdeer takes weevils from ploughed fields as well as from orchards and is one 
of the enemies of the Mexican cotton boll weevil.” W. L. McAtee in Farmers’ 
Bulletin No. 4-97, United States Department of Agriculture, presents in detail an 
astonishingly long list of insects eaten by the Killdeer and summarizes as follows: 
“In all, 97.72 per cent of the Killdeer’s food is composed of insects and other 
animal matter. The bird preys upon many of the worst crop pests and is a 
valuable economic factor. There can be no logical reason for continuing to 
regard it as a game bird. 
The Plovers are rather short-legged, plump-bodied birds with thickish bills 
not longer than the head. The feet are partially webbed; and among our birds 
the Black-bellied is the only one that has more than three toes. In this species 
the hind toe is present but is very small and inconspicuous. 
BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. This bird was formerly a regular migrant 
spring and fall through the state but seldom appeared in the large flocks charac¬ 
teristic of the Golden Plover. It had become uncommon in the eastern part of the 
state in the middle seventies when the writer first began recording bird observa- 
