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Show LEAVES" from WickStiw Some of Our Native Birds Few people, outside of confirmee city dwellers, are unfamiliar witl the plaintive, far-carrying cry of th( mourning dove that a coo-o, coo-o, coo-o, coo-o, which is so character istic of country fields and deep, stil woodlands. It is rather a large bird larger even than a robin. It builds a highly inefficient-lookinf nest of crossed sticks in the crotct of a tree and in this indifferent shelter shel-ter rears, yearly, a brood of twt younglings. The value of the mourning mourn-ing dove to farmers and orchardist! is usually not properly evaluated The bird lives almost' wholly or vegetable matter, its principal anc almost constant diet being weec seeds, such seeds constituting bi pel cent of its entire feed. In one stomach stom-ach were found 7,500 seeds of yellow yel-low wood sorrel; in another 6,40( seeds of foxtail; in another, 2,60( seeds of slender paspalum, 4,820 ol orange hawkweed, 950 of hoary vervain, ver-vain, 120 of Carolina cranesbill, 50 ol yellow wood sorrel, 620 of panic grass, and 40 of various other weeds Since practically all of these weed! are troublesome, it is apparent thai the mourning dove should be protected pro-tected in every possible way. THE SCREECH OWL This owl is our smallest species, heinff but eieht inches in length, bul its value is out of all proportion tc its ' size. The screech owl inhabit! orchards, groves, and thickets; ii hunts its prey, also, along fence! and hedgerows, and in the open. H Is a provident citizen, hunting assiduously assid-uously in warm weather and stor-ins stor-ins un auantities of food for us( during days of less clemency. Ir such storage places ornithologist! have often found enough mice or other oth-er small prey to serve the bird foi intervals of a week or more. Th screech owl feeds upon small mammals, mam-mals, reptiles, batrachians, fish, spiders, spi-ders, crawfish, scorpions and earth worms. Among the insects, its favorite fa-vorite foods are grasshoppers, crickets, crick-ets, ground beetles and caterpillars and it is known to destroy field mic and sparrows. The wise farmer wil encourage this little owl to mak its home quite near to his barn! and granaries where it will be highly high-ly efficient in keeping both house mice and wood mice in check. THE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK Some day when you have the good luck to see, rising into your orchard or woodland trees, a handsome birc with a black velvet cap and a triangular tri-angular patch of rose-carmine or its breast, and when, as it vibrate! its strong wings, it pours forth a rich clear, mellow song, you will know that you are looking upon the rose breasted grosbeak. For the mattei of that, you may hear it singing a' night, for it is one of our very limited lim-ited number of night singers. Farm ers and gardeners sometimes berate be-rate this lovely bird because of damage dam-age done to green peas, which i' loves, and sometimes to fruits, a! well, but the well-informed assuri us that this mischief is much mor than balanced by the bird's servic( in the destruction of insect pests The bird is so fond of the destruc-fnlnrnrto destruc-fnlnrnrto heetle that it is oftet called "the potato-bug bird." It alst attacks cucumber beetles with great vigor, as well as many scale insects It is an active enemy of the Rockj Mountain locust and feeds also and extensively upon cankerworms, orchard and forest tent caterpillars tussock, gipsy, and brown - tai moths, plum curculio, army worn and chinch bug. It may truly b said that for beauty and song anc economic value, few birds surpass sur-pass the rose-breasted grosbeak. THE NIGHTHAWK The nighthawk is hardly wel named, since it is not a nocturnal bird and is not, moreover, really I hawk, but belongs to the birds of the Goatsucker family. However, if on does not like to call it a nighthawk it has as long a list of aliases frorr which one may choose, as has anj number one gangster, among whict are bull-bat, mosquito hawk, night jar, piramidig, and several others The name "nightjar" fits it wel since it makes a curious, whirring booming sound which is, as someone has said, "like a strong blowing inte the bung-hole of an empty hogs head." This bird has been greatlj slandered by being accused of chick en-stealing and similar crimes. Ac tually it is of the greatest possible use to all agriculturists and should be protected everywhere to save i1 from Imminent extinction. Its diei is almost exclusively insects. For interesting intormMtion cencrniBj 6itj of our common farm end orchirt birds, send ten cents to Superintendent o. Documents. Washington. D. C. asking to. Farmers' Bulletin No. S13. PRESERVING VEGETABLES It has been demonstrated by care ful experiments that many vegeta bles besides cucumbers can be pre served by brining. For instance corn on the cob, burr gherkins green tomatoes and string beans d( well in a 10 per cent brine and wil keep for several months. Cauliflow er and green peppers require a 9 per cent brine and onions, 80 pe cent Since the salt constantl; draws moisture, the brine must t kept at its proper strength by th-gradual th-gradual addition of salt. |