OCR Text |
Show Three North American Game-Birds THE PRAIRIE CHICKEN: The prairie chicken often called partridge is now common only to Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Manitoba although the time was when this beautiful game bird was much more widely distributed. distrib-uted. The hunting fraternity themselves them-selves who one would suppose would be first to protect the game birds have been very largely responsible re-sponsible for the extensive destruction destruc-tion of the prairie chicken. It should be noted, however, that this beautiful wild bird is more than just a game bird; it is of such definite def-inite value to the farmer that, as a recent government publication states, "any farmer would profit by having these birds reared on his place." The same bulletin declares, further, fur-ther, that almost 15 per cent of the food of the prairie chicken consists of weed seeds, including those of such pests as foxtail grass, smart-weed smart-weed and ragweed (which sulTerers from hay fever should also note). Another 15 per cent of the bird's food consists of insects, largely grasshoppers. grass-hoppers. The prairie chicken showed itself particularly useful at the time of the terrible invasions of the Rocky Mountain locust. Sixteen birds examined at that time were found to have eaten 8U6 locusts. Among other pests destroyed by this bird are the Colorado potato beetle, the 12-spotted cucumber beetle, the sugar-beet leaf-beetle, May beetles, cotton worms, army worms, cutworms, cut-worms, the yellow bear caterpillar, caterpil-lar, and the chinch bug. If for no other reason, the prairie chicken should be beloved as the harbinger har-binger of the lovely northern spring. THE CALIFORNIA QUAIL: Of all the charming birds in the world, none, probably, is more appealing ap-pealing to the bird lover than the little, scuttling quail, with its plaintive, plain-tive, peeping cry. Like the well-known well-known Bob White of the eastern states, the quail is fond of cover, delighting to dwell on unimproved land where trees and scrub alternate with small natural parks of open land. The author of the bulletin referred re-ferred to above states that he has "seen a female quail sitting upon her eggs in a garden within 30 feet of a house, between which and the nest foot passengers passed many times each day. In winter a covey frequently feeds with the farmer's chickens, and if not disturbed will continue to do so until pairing time." It must be admitted that quail are sometimes destructive, especially in vineyards; they love grapes. However, How-ever, under normal conditions the farmer and orchardist have nothing to fear from its ravages. It must always be remembered, in favor of the quail, that vegetable food constitutes con-stitutes 97 per cent of his diet, and that such food consists mainly of seeds of plants which are of noxious or troublesome species. Quail, when young, eat large numbers of insects including beetles, bugs, caterpillars, grasshoppers, flies, spiders and snails. They will also feed joyously, if given the chance, upon various kinds of scale insects. Adult quail, as well as the young ones, are particularly par-ticularly fond of ants. THE HORNED GREBE: The grebes belong to one of the most interesting groups of water birds. It may be said, in passing, that the most remarkable fact about the feeding habits of the grebe is that these birds eat great quantities of feathers. Grebes have been accused ac-cused of living exclusively upon fishes and of doing, therefore, great mischief in fish hatcheries, but carefully care-fully collected evidence does not support this charge against them. Examination of many grebe stomachs stom-achs shows they eat large numbers of insects including aquatic bugs such as caddis-flies, dragon-fly nymphs, etc. They also eat a great many crawfish and other Crustacea, together with snails and spiders. In spite of his fondness for fish, which constitutes probably one-fourth of his diet, the grebe is a useful bird, since he eats quantities of crawfish which often severely damage crops, and consumes those aquatic insects which arc known to devour both small fl.sh and the food of such fishes. Common names for the grebe are hell diver, sprite and water wtch because he dives like a fish, or, when he wishes, simply submerges, leaving not so much as a rip'e to mark the spot where he was. Further mlvim.ition concrininf fart.. irju.iric. and rjutiouJ birds nay ') ic-curtj ic-curtj by sendm hv? cfnr to Huie; un nd-tni nd-tni ol Documents. W ahmt'on. O. C, tni fikint tor turners' liul'etm Nn. 497. THE DEODAR A particularly symmetrical conifer coni-fer is the deodar (t'edrus dcoilara) which is a native of Asia but has been very successfully grown on the Pacific coast and in the wanner parts of the Middle West and some of the Eastern states. ROSE 1 1 LU RE Roses are heavy feeders and must have rich soils if good results are to be obtained. The soil must be carefully prepared and heavily fertilized, fer-tilized, the best fertilizer to use being be-ing cow manure. |