793 
FOREST AND STREAM 
June 22, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
CORRE.SPOIVHE1VCE— Forest and Stream is the 
recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
formation betvyeen American sportsmen. The editors 
invite communications on the subjects to which its pages 
are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the' 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
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THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14 , 1873 . 
MEADOWLARK IN CALIFORNIA. 
It is only natural that California, with its 
well developed fruit and grain industries, should 
be troubled with all sorts of pests. In order of 
economic importance, insects naturally come first. 
Anything, therefore, which tends to keep in check 
the great hordes of injurious insects must be con¬ 
sidered a direct benefit. Probably next to insect 
parasites, birds are the most important factor in 
checking the increase of insects. This brings 
about an important problem, the solution of 
which, to say the least, is difficult. For on one 
side we have certain birds which act as checks 
on insects, and on the other side the same birds 
causing considerable loss by their depredations 
in the orchard and grain field. 
One of the most noted birds belonging to 
this general class is the meadowlark. That its 
depredations in grain fields are real must be¬ 
come evident when it is known that in the last 
two Legislatures bills have been introduced tak¬ 
ing protection away from this bird because of its 
destruction to sprouting grain. The continual 
complaint against this bird by ranchers and the 
strong defense of the bird by others caused the 
Fish and Game Commission to take up a scien¬ 
tific investigation into its food habits. 
As the only fair test of the value of a bird 
to the people of California is a thorough knowl¬ 
edge of the food habits of the bird throughout 
the year, it was determined to obtain this knowl¬ 
edge by field work supplemented with stomach 
examination of birds taken in many different 
parts of the State each month in the year. Many 
interesting things that have been demonstrated 
in the work thus far are of general interest. 
Abundant proof of the depredations of the 
meadowlark in the grain fields has been afforded 
by the stomach examination. Birds taken during 
the winter months are found to contain little 
else than grain. As many as thirty kernels of 
oats with enough hulls to account for as many 
more grains have been found in a single stomach. 
In the field investigation it has been found that 
the birds prefer oats and often do considerable 
damage to a field, e.specially where the birds are 
numerous and the amount of grain small. It is 
indeed astonishing to see the skillful way in 
which the birds follow the drill, and digging 
down beside the sprout, pull out the kernel. The 
fact that meadowlarks damage a field only when 
the sprout is just coming through the soil and 
not after it has reached a height of two or three 
inches, makes the period of time during which 
damage can he done of short duration. The fact 
that oats and wheat are the only grains dam¬ 
aged to any extent also minimizes somewhat the 
amount of damage done. 
After the presentation of this side of the 
bird’s life the question naturally arises: Can 
the meadowlark possibly pay for the damage 
done by destroying injurious insects which would 
also cause a loss to the rancher? The investi¬ 
gation has not progressed far enough to admit 
of a final answer. However, some definite state¬ 
ments can be made as to the value of the 
meadowlark as a destroyer of injurious insects. 
Stomach examination has shown the food of 
the meadowlark to be made up largely of beetles, 
cutworms, grasshoppers, crickets, ants and wood 
crickets (commonly called Jerusalem crickets.) 
As a destroyer of cutworms and grasshop¬ 
pers the meadowlark is probably unequaled by 
any other bird. As many as sixty-six cutworms 
have been found in a single stomach and as 
many as thirty pairs of mandibles of grasshop¬ 
pers. When it is known that the time of diges¬ 
tion of these insects is only two to three hours, 
it becomes very evident that the number of these 
injurious insects destroyed in a day is very great. 
It thus appears that the birds in the same locality 
where they do damage later on perform a valu¬ 
able service in exterminating insects which are 
well known as destroyers of grain. 
A HOBBY. 
Is it not remarkable what a hobby will do, 
particularly an outdoor hobby? Take woman as 
an example. Seldom one hears of a woman 
golfer, trapshooter, yacht owner, tennis player, 
autoist, or poloist in the ranks of suffrage. We 
never hear of such cases as that of Rose Pastor 
Stokes, in her efforts to Pastorize the waiters. 
We men all admit our moral cowardice in tip¬ 
ping waiters for services rendered restaurants 
and hotels in which they are employed, but if 
Rose Pastor Stokes had an outdoor hobby, would 
she waste her time on a “fight” for the waiter? 
W e think not. No department of menial service 
is better supported by the public than the waiter, 
and it needs no help from the suffragettes. Man 
never yet objected to woman taking part in his 
outdoor recreation, and in some outdoor sports 
women excel. For instance: How many trap- 
shooters can break more clay targets than Mrs. 
Ad. Topperwein? Mighty few. How many big- 
game hunters have bagged a sixty-three inch 
moose head, such as Mabel W. Richards has to 
her credit? How many men can do the trudgeon 
further than Miss Golding? Not many—and yet 
among this class of women, how many are suf¬ 
fragettes? None. 
The fact is that when a woman or a man 
has an outdoor hobby to take up spare time, the 
mind is occupied in carrying out the physical 
construction, so that what gray matter might be 
wasted on the personal ego, is devoted to the 
contest. In other words, instead of following 
the adage, “For mental ills take liver pills,” 
try the more modern suggestion—for mental ills 
take exercise. 
WHERE DOES CHARITY BEGIN? 
A SHORT while ago an appeal was made for 
money for survivors of the Titanic disaster. Hun¬ 
dreds of thousands of dollars poured from Amer¬ 
ican pockets; more money than actually was 
needed. This might be termed a foreign charity, 
as practicalh' all the money was expended on 
“prospective residents’’ of our great country. It 
was a good work well done, perchance a little 
over done. Shortly following the Titanic sinking 
the same element that caused so great a loss of 
life let loose its incomprehensible energy, flood¬ 
ing out and drowning like rats thousands of 
families along the Mississippi River. Subscrip¬ 
tions were started, but strange to say this calam¬ 
ity called forth much sympathy and a shamefully 
poor cash contribution. Here was a home charity 
passed by “on the other side,” by Americans and 
foreigners alike. 
More people, of the better and more useful 
class, were made homeless by the Mississippi 
flood than through loss of the Titanic, and yet 
financial help is not forthcoming. Can it be that 
the present day relief fund builders must be 
shocked into giving? Do they require the dra¬ 
matic and spectacular to loosen their purse 
strings, or do they feel that because the planter 
along the Mississippi has more or less trouble 
each year from floods that financial help is not 
necessary even though he, his family and help 
are without home, clothes or food ? Reports 
f 1 om Louisiana show conditions to be even worse 
than generally is supposed, that immediate finan¬ 
cial relief must be forthcoming. If “charity be¬ 
gins at home.” let us turn on the tap leading to 
its source and help the once prosperous, now de¬ 
pendent and suffering American planter to a 
fresh start. His needs are incomparably greater 
than were those of the Titanic foreign victims, 
and far more pressing. 
CHESTNUTS. 
Must the boy be deprived of his chestnuts? 
It begins to look so, and yet a fall without a 
chestnut hunt will make Jack an unhappy boy. 
It seems, however, that a blight has zealously 
selected the small boy’s favorite for destruction. 
The chestnut blight, scientifically termed Dia- 
portlie parasitica Mur, knows no sectional preju¬ 
dice. It has gone from State to State, creating 
havoc everywhere. The only remedy thus far 
discovered is that of chopping down the affected 
tree, which not only is expensive, but evidently 
not efficacious. In New Jersey the damage al¬ 
ready done amounts to five million dollars. It 
is the white plague of the forest, although un¬ 
fortunately it cannot be checked by sending the 
patient to a different climate, for all climates 
alike seem unable to offer resistance to this 
fungus growth that destroys the bark and cuts 
off nourishment to the tree. When tree doctors 
disagree, the pleasures of chestnutting will be an 
etching on the small boy’s memory instead of a 
pocket full of chestnuts. 
