COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 37 
bindweed, lamb’s-quarters, pigweed, corn cockle, duckweed, charlock, partridge 
pea, beggar lice, nail grass, rib grass, ragweed, and Spanish needles. 
Acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, and pine seeds make up about 2.5 per cent of the 
food, and wild fruits about 10 per cent. The fruits include berries of palmetto, smilax, 
wax myrtle, mulberry, sassafras, blackberries and raspberries, rose haws, cherry, 
sumac, grapes, sour gum, blueberries, honeysuckle, partridge berry, and a number 
of others. The bob-white feeds to a slight extent upon buds and leaves, including 
those of yellow and red sorrel, cinquefoil, and clover. 
Grain forms scarcely more than a sixth of the food, but most of it is taken during 
winter and early spring when nothing but waste grain is available. The habit of 
gleaning this after the harvest is beneficial to the farm, for volunteer grain is not 
desirable, especially where it serves to maintain certain insect and fungus pests. 
Although most of the grain and seed crops grown upon the farm are represented in 
bob-white’s dietary, no significant damage can be attributed to the bird. 
Animal food, chiefly insects, composes nearly a sixth of the bird’s subsistence. 
From June to August, inclusive, when insects are most numerous, their proportion 
in the food is about 36 per cent. The variety of insect food is great and includes a 
number of the most destructive agricultural pests. Among them may be mentioned 
the Colorado potato beetle, 12-spotted cucumber beetle, bean leaf beetle, squash lady¬ 
bird, wireworms, May beetles, corn billbugs, clover leaf weevil, cotton boll weevil, 
army worm, bollworm, cutworms, and chinch bug. 
On the strength of the bob-white’s feeding on the boll weevil, a campaign has been 
waged in several Southern States for complete protection for the bird. This move¬ 
ment is particularly ill advised, since this bird is by no means prominent among the 
enemies of the boll weevil. Some 220 stomachs of bob-whites collected in cotton 
fields have been examined, with the result that a single boll weevil was found in 
one stomach. The reports of bob-white’s eating large numbers of boll weevils are 
based on field observations, which are very liable to inaccuracy, and upon the be¬ 
havior of captive birds, winch has little if any value as an indication of their habits 
under natural conditions. 
On the other hand, the food habits of the bob-white undoubtedly are beneficial 
and the bird should be maintained in numbers on every farm. This is not to say 
that all shooting should be prohibited, for the bird is very prolific. But its numbers 
should not be reduced below what the available nesting sites and range will support.— 
w. L. M. 
SWALLOW-TAILED KITE . 1 
The swallow-tailed kite is not only one of the most common birds of prey in the 
South, but also one of the most beneficial. Its head, neck, and lower parts are white, 
and its back, wings, and tail, a glossy bluish black. The bird is as much at home in 
the air as a swift or swallow, usually feeding and drinking without alighting. Its 
ease and grace of movement always command admiration. 
This kite preys upon beetles, wasps, cotton worms, grasshoppers, and dragonflies. 
It takes also frogs, lizards, and small snakes. The swallow-tailed kite seems to be 
entirely innocent of preying upon birds or mammals, after the fashion of so many of 
its raptorial relatives, and on the whole is a species worthy of preservation.—w. l. m. 
TURKEY BUZZARD . 2 
Turkey buzzards (fig. 20) are familiar features of southern landscapes. On the 
ground they appear uncouth and awkward, but in the air show a skill, particularly in 
soaring, approached by few other birds. Their wonderful soaring flight has been a 
subject of study by a multitude of observers, and the buzzard is not only the model 
but also the inspiration of the American invented aeroplane. The bird is chiefly 
1 Elanoidcs fortificatus. 
2 Cathartcs aura scptentrionalis. 
