14 THEA U DU BON, BU L LIBgiaes 
must share by paying higher prices for what is left. It must be recognized 
that it is largely through the farmer’s efforts that wildlife restoration and 
maintenance can be accomplished, and it must be borne in mind that the 
wildlife crop is, in the vast majority of cases, subordinate to the primary 
or “cash” crops. 
The economic value of our common birds is well known to the compara- 
tively few professional ornithologists, but to the bird student to whom we 
referred it is not often a matter for thought. The statement has been 
seriously made that if the birds of the world should be exterminated, life 
on the earth would cease in from five to ten years because of the great 
reproductivity of insect forms. All vegetation would be destroyed, and upon 
that depends all other life. We have in recent years seen a little of what 
might happen in the grasshopper plagues when they overran some of our 
Western states. A monument to the Franklin gull now stands in Salt Lake 
City in commemoration of its service in the early years of Mormon settle- 
ment in Utah, when the settlers were near starvation by reason of crop 
destruction by locusts. 
It is not necessary, however, to go into the spectacular pages of history 
to show the value of our common birds, for we can find it in the every day 
lives of what we are so apt to think of as beautiful creatures with attractive 
songs, and let it go at that. We have to consider the habits of only a few 
of the better known birds to realize what they mean to the farmer and to 
the country dependent on him. I will try to present just enough evidence 
to leave in your minds no doubt that birds as a class are not only very 
useful, but that it is well worth our while,-even from a selfish standpoint, 
to protect them and to insist upon their protection by others. 
One of those for whose cheery call we all listen each spring is the bob- 
white or quail, recognized as the pre-eminent friend of the farmer. Its food 
consists of weed seeds, wild fruits and grasses, and insects whenever and 
wherever they can be found. Each quail on a farm has been valued at $5.00 
because of the insects it consumes. Among those taken are several of the 
most destructive varieties, including cutworms, cabbage worms, army 
worms, potato bugs, chinch bugs, weevils, grasshoppers, locusts, plant lice 
and flies. One captive bird is reported as having eaten 1,532 insects in a 
day, 1,000 of which were grasshoppers; another 5,000 plant lice in a day; 
and still another 568 mosquitoes in two hours. Mrs. Nice found that they 
ate from 600 weed seeds a day to 30,000, according to the size of the seeds 
and the capacity of the bird. A Bulletin of the U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture lists 129 species of weed seeds and wild fruits which the bob-white 
is known to feed upon and includes enormous quantities of ragweed, chick- 
weed and sorrel. Dr. Sylvester D. Judd estimated very conservatively that 
the bob-whites of Virginia consumed 573 tons of weed seeds between Sep- 
tember 1 and April 30. And this is the bird for which we listen each spring 
and forget that it is listed as a game bird and hunted for sport each fall. 
While a savory morsel, it is still but a good bite and does not add appreci- 
ably to the food supply, and is much more valuable alive than dead. To kill 
a quail and serve it on toast is to realize but a very small part of what it 
is worth. 
