The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-02-03

uOuueT, l0oU, evening primrose, lU,UUU,
lambs quarter, Is, 600; milkweed, 40;
peppergrass 24OO; pigweed. $4,000;
plantain, II, 500; rabbitsfoot clover, 30
600; bush clover, 1900; smartweed,
225G; white vervain, 1880; water
smartweed, 1000.
Finally the years consumption by
one pair in captivity was 1870. 905 in
sects and ZAP, 688 weed seeds.
If bobwhite were machine what
would farmer give for him? Com
mon sense would have run like chicken
over field and garden and the gunn~
should be taboo.
This brings US to ruffed grouse and
wild turkey, and one of the absurdities
of human conduct. wonder how many
know that the royal bird which has
graced our Christmas tables is of
Mexican origin, while our native tur-
key is the one which we are letting
gunners prosecute to humiliation.
Spaniards took some Mexican turkeys
to Europe early IN the Sixteenth
Century, and there they were domes-
ticated, and finally exported to the
United States. Grain and shelter are
their portion. while our own bird draws
shot and trap.
Similarly, while the incompatible
bobwhite, heath hen and ruffled grouse
have been interrupted in their skilled
lahors for agriculture and rushed
through program to the verge of ex-
tinction, three-fourths of the States in
the Union are falling over one another
to extend complete protection to the
Hungarian partridge and European and
Asiatic pheasants, which are imported
to take the very ranges that by pre-
emption and demonstrated fitness be-
long to our own superior birds.
Caught in improper conduct, it is
much less calling for one to fly off on
a spectacular tangent than to turn
simply around in ones tracks and re-
trace the erroneous steps. The cure
for lessening game is less cunning, and
it is the only cure. When a gunner can
be made to stop firing long enough to
realize that, it is possible that he
may listen to the economic orni biologist,
who is earnestly telling what the real
function of the bird in the world is.
The time was when the Southern
rice grower was justified in warning
on what we call the reedbird because
of his depredations on that crop in
both spring and autumn. But this basis
for its classification as game bird in
the Eastern States has been swept
away because this industry has vanish
ed. In the North it is an economic
factor Of great Importance, for in May,
June and July IS per cent. of its food
is insects. 1t is very destructive to
grasshoppers and caterpillars, par
ticularly to the army worm. After the
young are able to fly, the whole family
gathers for vicious assault on wee
seed. q
. 1t ought to be a pleasure for the
South to treasure for the North this
efficient and melodious harlequin of the
meadows, just as the North should
foster the swallows and orioles, the
blackbirds and meadowlarks, which
work so bravely on the cotton boil
weevil of the South. Maryland is one
of only six States, which, with the
District of Columbia, keep up the
slaughter.
The shore birds have bigger task
before them than to provide liveli-
ness for city jewellers by the sea and
sport for gunners on the uplands.
They form the most important bird
enemy to mosquitoes known to US,
according to Professor McAtee, who
has rsSorted on their food. Like num-
erous other species, they are death to
grasshoppers Take the Individual diet
of upland plover, which sportsmen seem
determined to retire: Crane flies, de-
structive to grass lands and wheat fields;
cut-worms, pests of forage and grain
crops; North American fever ticks,
which attacks cattle; cotton cutworm;
boil weevil, cloverleaf weevil, cowpea
weevil and clover root curculio; bill
bugs, that damage corn; wire worms,
cornleaf beetle and the grape vine col
aspic; crayfsh, which is a pest in rice
and cornfelds in the South and which
Injuries levees; dying beetle, which are
a nuisance in fish hatcheries.
Shoulder to shoulder with him in
most of this work stand woodcock and
kilIdeer, and the latter is in group
which devours the larvae of horseflies
and eats marine worms, which prey up
on oysters.
Is this not enough to spoil the aim of
gunner with heart?
M. LLEWEDLYN RANEY,
Johns Hopkins University.
Remember.
Don't sheer at the man who falls,