June i, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
695 
The relations to man of certa'n common game, 
aquatic and rapacious birds, is discussed in a re¬ 
cent Bulletin from the Biological Survey, pre¬ 
pared by W. L. McAtee and F. E. L. Beal. It 
is shown that many of the game birds have a 
high agricultural value from the number of 
noxious insects that they destroy. Some birds, 
like grebes and terns, which by many people are 
supposed to feed chiefly on fish, actually feed 
largely on crawfish and insects, while few of the 
fish eaten by terns are of any economic value. 
On the other hand, certain gulls and terns de¬ 
stroy great numbers of insects, and most people 
familiar with California in the spring have seen 
gulls following the plow and devouring the in¬ 
sects exposed by its passage. Certain shore birds 
are regarded as highly useful. Hawks and owls, 
which have a bad 
name, are believed to 
do much good. 
Fourteen birds are 
described and figured 
in this Bulletin — the 
prairie chicken, Cali¬ 
fornia quail, ruffed 
grouse and intro¬ 
duced pheasant, the 
upland and kildeer 
plover, the horned 
grebe, Franklin’s gull 
and five species of 
terns. Cooper’s, the 
rough leg and the 
sparrow hawks, and 
the long-eared and 
screech owls. 
The prairie chicken or pinnated grouse, once 
extending from the Atlantic coast to the border 
of the western plains, has been destroyed over 
its range by over-shooting. As is well said by 
Mr. McAtee, “Many sportsmen declare allegiance 
to the highest principles of game preservation, 
yet fail to practice these principles. Our present 
game laws, even though efficiently administered, 
will save no species of birds, as the rapid growth 
of the army of sportsmen and pot hunters more 
than counterbalances the effect of the shorten¬ 
ing of open season and reduction of bag limits.” 
The prairie chicken is useful to the farmer. Fif¬ 
teen per cent, of its food consists of weed seeds, 
and another 15 per cent, of insects, mostly in¬ 
jurious. The California quail is another bird 
whose seed-eating habits commend it, but on 
the other hand it is accused of devouring grain 
and fruits, and no doubt does so to some ex¬ 
tent. 
The ruffed grouse is a wild feeder and does 
no harm while destroying some harmful insects. 
It is far better able to take care of itself than 
any of its near relations. 
The introduced pheasant has its friends and 
its enemies. It is well known that the pheasant 
is a fighter, a hearty feeder and a bird of much 
energy. Some landowners in Ontario county 
claim that the loss suffered on account of pheas¬ 
ants has been twice the amount of their taxes. 
The birds are said to have destroyed cornfields 
and to have dug up oats, barley, beans and garden 
truck. When the farmer knows—as most do— 
how much damage his poultry cause, if they get 
into the garden, he is justified in suspecting the 
pheasant. 
Ninety-seven per cent, of the food of the up¬ 
land plover consist of insects, chiefly injurious, 
and the killdeer has a record not far behind 
that. The latter is said to be peculiarly de¬ 
structive to the alfalfa weevil, and both are use¬ 
ful birds. 
The horned grebe lives almost entirely on 
crawfish and other Crustacea and on water in¬ 
sects, many of which devour small fishes and the 
food of such fishes. It is thus useful. 
Gulls and terns destroy great quantities of in¬ 
sects, and it is recalled that in 1907, at the time 
of the Nevada mouse plague in the Humboldt 
valley, gulls were present in great numbers. 
Some of the terns, as the royal and Foster’s tern, 
feed largely on fish; others, like the common tern 
and the black terns, eat a great deal of insect 
food. The fish consists chiefly of small m.n- 
nows along the shore, which never grow to any 
size, or of the young of the menhaden, which is 
destroyed in great quantities for its oil or fer¬ 
tilizer. 
Cooper’s hawk is distinctly injurious, while the 
rough-legged hawk is regarded as useful, because 
it is largely nocturnal in habit and catches great 
numbers of mxe. The sparrow hawk feeds large¬ 
ly on insects, but is known sometimes to destroy 
song birds, as shown some years ago by Wilber 
F. Smith, of Connecticut. 
The little owls named are useful birds, though 
to be sure the screech owl during the migration 
kills not a few small birds. 
Exotic Birds in New Zealand. 
Owing to the paucity of New Zealand’s bird 
fauna, the settlers there have been unusually 
active in introducing exotic birds, and more than 
•twenty species have been liberated. Several of 
these have been pronounced very harmful. As 
might be expected, the English sparrow is the 
worst leader in destructiveness, followed, it is 
said, by the skylark and the blackbird, the latter 
a relative of the American robin. The Austral¬ 
asian colonies of Britain have certainly paid dear 
for their thoughtless haste to interfere with the 
processes of nature. 
New Publications. 
In Northern Labrador, by William Brooks 
Cabot. Richard G. Badger, Boston, Mass. 
292 pages, illustrated. 
This work shows an intelligent study of the 
great subject of Northern Labrador. In addition 
to its being an intimate treatise-of the country and 
its people, it also will interest the sportsman be¬ 
cause of its description of the fish and fishing 
in that cold country. The sea trout, the square- 
tail and the lake trout; the former from 
Un'sekat and the latter from Assiwaban River 
brings action to the heart of the angler. The 
book is worthy of a place in the sportsman’s 
library. 
Practical Dry-Fly Fishing, by Enilyn M. Gill. 
Price, $1.25 net; 
by mail, $1.35- 
Charles S c r i b- 
ner’s Sons, New 
York. 
At last Americans 
have a book on the 
dry-fly, and it comes 
at an opportune time, 
for the interest in 
this form of angling 
has been growing 
rapidly the past year. 
It is an old story in 
England, where many 
anglers have used the 
floating fly for up¬ 
ward of thirty or 
forty years. In 
America its users have been comparatively few. 
Mr. Gill treats the subject in a thoroughly prac¬ 
tical and instructive manner. Having become a 
dry-fly enthusiast himself a few years ago, he 
e.xplains that he desires his position to be under¬ 
stood as that of “a beginner lending a helping 
hand to other beginners.” Notwithstanding the 
practical side of the book and the modesty of the 
author, it will undoubtedly interest all fly-fisher¬ 
men, whether experts or tyros. The author, 
after describing the methods of the English 
purist, modifies them to fit the different condi¬ 
tions on American streams. He describes rods, 
lines and flies, and gives concisely the rules for 
using them, first on a hypothetical pool, and then 
on a real pool, from which the reader, accom¬ 
panied by the author, takes a few trout. He 
shows how the dry-fly may be used successfully 
upon our streams, more turbulent than the placid 
chalk streams of England; explains the drag, 
and gives rules for overcoming it; differentiates 
wilderness fishing from angling for “educated” 
trout, gives a list of artificial flies for use on 
American streams, with descriptions of the living 
Ephemeridce. and after an interesting relation of 
some personal experiences on various streams, 
gives a histor}^ of the dry-fly and its interesting 
literature It will undoubtedly solve many problems 
for those who are interested in this form of ang¬ 
ling, but who are puzzled as to how to go about it. 
