The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1916-03-09
STOP BIRD MURDER
Scientists Protest Against Wan
ton Slaughter.
Farmers Fail to Appreciate the True
Value of Their Feathered Helpers
Their Work Extolled as
Foes Of Insects.

St Michaels, Md-'If all the birds
were destroyed the world would be
overrun with insects in from seven
TO nine years says Michelet, the
French historian.
The slaughter of the bobwhite, bet
ter known here as quail and partridge,
has ceased, as the season is over and
the bird is about extinct. The gun
ners have been persistent and every
coyey that nested in the woods last
summer was trailcd and shot this win
ter. Maryland is one OF only six
states, with the District Of Columbia,
which has an open season for quail.
Forty.six states realize that the bob
white is a valuable asset and protect
him from the gunner.
The biological survey has been and
is making efforts to teach the farmer
that birds are his best friends and
that without them farming would be-
impossible.
There is something more than game
ness and six ounces Of delicately flaw
ored meat to bObwhite. Or. Sylvester
Judd of the biological survey has held
autopsies over hundreds of dead, and
Mrs Margaret Morse Nice of Clark
university has played detective on bob
white living They have discovered
that bobwhitc is marvcIously benefi.
cent TO human kind. Nature has not
provided such another sCourge to in
sects and eXterminator Of weed seeds
He is nonmgratory and will be found
at his business place twelve months
of the year.
On his ordinary bill Of fare will be
found IA kinds OF insects and 1919 of
weed seed The gunner who shoots
him imagines that grain Is about all
he eats. but as a matter of fact it
amounts 10 only onc-siyth Of his food
for the year, and this Is taken not
from the standing crops or among the
sheaves at harvest time. but from
what escapes the reaper When grain
IS sproutnR I'm the fields bObwhite has
other matters to attend, for late in
ais food consists Of the grains insect
foes, which make Is per cent on the
year total in the wild, or more than
Z third in captivity II is an import
ant list, too for birds not Of his kind
csChew many of his favOritcs He
likes the potato beetle the cucumber
beetle, squash lady bug, corn bin bug,
cutwurms tobacco worms, clover wee
vii cotton boz wccyil, imbricatcd
Bnout beetle May beetle, plant lice,
grasshoppcrs. Rocky Mountain locust
and cbiuch bug
The bobwhitc chicks. eating "a per
cent OF ,hcir weight daily, live for six
weeks on insects, and in this time
consume 10000 each One a week
old, ate 1926 plant lice and 20 meal
worms, and was not done for the day.
Here are some single meals for
adults
Boil weeyils, 81; potato bugs, lOl;
chinch bugs, 100 squash bugs. 70.
army worms y, cutworms II. mos
qutoes, 5G8-all IN three hours And
as a sample Of a days work, in addi.
ton to seeds, grain and green food.
note 1850 flies ans l,2SG rose slugs,
or 5000 plant lice
In the winter months the bubwhite
turns 10 weed seeds, which form more
than half his food for the year. and
here are samples Of one birds con
sumption for one day:
Barnyard grass, $500 boggar ticks.
400; black mustard, $500. burdock.
COO crab grass, 1000, curIed dock.
4,l7j, dodder, 1860; evening prim.
rose, 10000 lambs quarters, $4,000,
milkweed, 77O pepper grass. 400;
pigweed. 10000; plantaIn, 70 500, rab.
bits foot. clover, 10000, bush clover,
1900; smartweed. $3.50. white yer.