The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1916-02-19
A PLEA FOR BOB WHITE

That is news to lawmakers, but law
makers have been taking their cue
from gunners, and gunners cannot af-
ford to know. But DR.. Sylvester Judd,
of the Biological Survey. has held au-
topsy over bobwhite dead, and Mrs.
Margaret Morse Nice, of Clark Uni
versity, has played detective on bob.
white living. and bobwhite is innocent
innocent not merely. but marvel
ously benefcent to humankind. Such
another little combination of scourge
to insects and exteTminator of weed
seed never left the hand Of nature
under feathers.
on-mgratory, he will be found II
months in the year on the little plot
of ground lucky enough to have him
for tenant.
On his bill of fare are 141 species of
insects and 1919 of weed seed. The
gunner who shoots him in the stubble,
imagines that grain is about all that
he eats, but as a matter af fact it
amounts to only one sixth of his food
for the year, and this is taken not
from the standing crop or among the
sheaves at harvest time but from what
escapes the reaper. When grain is
sprouting and when the crop is in the
milk, bobwhite has other concerns, for
in late spring and summer one to two
thirds of his food consists of the fields
insect foes, which make Is per cent. of
the years total in the wild, or more
than a third in captivity. 1t is an i'm
portant list, too. for birds not of his
order eschew many of his favorites.
Potato beetles he likes, and the Gu
cumber beetle, squash ladybird, corn
billbug. cutworms. the tobacco worm,
army worm. cotton boil worm, clover
weevil, cotton boil weevil. intoxicated
snout beetle, May beetle, plant lice,
grasshoppers, Rocky mountain locust
and chinchbug. The chick, eating A
per cent. of his weight daily, lives for
six weeks on insects, and in this time
one consumes some 10000 and in
,creases in weight tenfold. One. a week
old. ate 1926 plant lice and 20 meal
worms. but was not done for the day.
Herr are some single meals of
adults: Torty-seven boil weevils. 1O1
potato bug, 100 chinchbugs, II squash
bugs. II army worms, II cutworms
and 568 mosquitoes in three hours.
And as samples of days work, in
addition to seeds, grain and green food
note 1850 flies or 1886 rose slugs or
5000 plant lice.
In the winter months he turns to
weed seed which forms more than
half his food for the year, and here
are some samples of one days con-
sumption by one bird
Barnyard grass, 2500; beggar ticks,
400; black mustard, 2500; Burdock,
600; crabgrass, 1000; curled dock,
4175; dodder. 1860; evening primrose,
10000; lambs quarter, $4,000; milk
weed, 40; peppergrass, 24OO; pig
weed, 10000; plantain, 12,500; rab-
bitsfoot clover, 10000; bush clover,
1900; smartwood, 2250; white vervain,
1880; water smartweed. 1000.
Finally, the years consumption by
one pair in captivity was 13O,9O5 in
sects and l0,442, 6SS weed seeds.
If bobwhite were a machine what
would farmer give for him? Com
chicken over field and garden and the
gunner should be taboo.
This brings us to ruffed grouse and
wild turkey and one of the absurdi-
ties 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 ole which we are letting
gunners persecute to annihi!ation.
Spaniards took some Mexican turkeys
to Europe early in the Sixteenth Cen
fury, and there they were domesticat-
ed, and finally exported to the United
States. Gram and shelter are their
portion while our own bird draws shot
and trap.
Similarly, while the Incompatible
bobwhite, heath hen and rutfed grouse
have been interrupted in the" skilled
labors for agriculture and rushed
through a 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 i'm
ported to take the very ranges that by
pre- emption and demonstrated fitness
belong to our own superior birds.
Caught in improper conduct, it is
much less calling for one to fly off on
Il 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 gun
ner can be made to stop firing long
enough to realize that. it is possible
that he may listen to the economic
ornithologist. 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 depradations on that crop in
both spring and autumn. But this
basis for its classification as a game
bird in the Eastern States has been
swept away because this industry has
vanished. In the North it is an eco
nomic factor of great Importance, for
in May, June and July 85 per cent. of
its food is insects. 1t is very destruc-
tive to grasshoppers and caterpillars,
particularly to the army worm. After
the young are able to fly, the whole