Part 5

The nighthawk, or bull-bat,[54] breeds throughout most of the United States and Canada, and winters in South America. It is strictly insectivorous, and hence does no damage to crops. The only charge that can be made against the bird is that it destroys some useful insects, but these are greatly in the minority in its food.

[54] _Chordeiles virginianus_.

Nighthawks are so expert in flight that no insects can escape them. In their capacious mouths they sweep up everything from the largest moths and dragon flies to the tiniest ants and gnats, and in this way sometimes gather most remarkable collections of insects. Several stomachs have contained 50 or more different kinds, and the number of individuals ran into the thousands.

Nearly a fourth of the birds' total food is composed of ants. These Insects are generally annoying and often very injurious, especially on account of their damage to stored products and because of their habit of fostering destructive plant lice. More than a fifth of the nighthawk's food consists of June bugs, dung beetles, and other beetles of the leaf-chafer family. These are the adults of white grubs, noted pests, and even as adults many members of the family are decidedly harmful.

Numerous other injurious beetles, as click beetles, wood borers, and weevils, are relished. True bugs, moths, flies, grasshoppers, and crickets also are important elements of the food. Several species of mosquitoes, including the transmitter of malaria, are eaten. Other well-known pests consumed by the nighthawk are Colorado potato beetles, cucumber beetles, rice, clover-leaf, and cotton-boll weevils, billbugs, bark beetles, squash bugs, and moths of the cotton worm.

Nighthawks are much less numerous than formerly, chiefly because of wanton shooting. They are given full legal protection almost everywhere, and citizens should see that the law is obeyed. The bird is far too useful and attractive to be persecuted.

THE WOODPECKERS.

Five or six species of woodpeckers are familiarly known throughout the eastern United States, and In the West are replaced by others of similar habits. Several species remain in the Northern States through the entire year, while others are more or less migratory.

Farmers are prone to look upon woodpeckers with suspicion. When the birds are seen scrambling over fruit trees and pecking holes in the bark, it is concluded that they must be doing harm. Careful observers, however, have noticed that, excepting a single species, these birds rarely leave any conspicuous mark on a healthy tree, except when it is affected by wood-boring larvæ, which are accurately located, dislodged, and devoured by the woodpecker.

Two of the best-known woodpeckers, the hairy woodpecker[55] (fig. 20) and the downy woodpecker,[56] including their races, range over the greater part of the United States. They differ chiefly in size, their colors being practically the same. The males, like those of many other woodpeckers, are distinguished by a scarlet patch on the head. An examination of many stomachs of these two species shows that from two-thirds to three-fourths of the food consists of insects, chiefly noxious kinds. Wood-boring beetles, both adults and larvæ, are conspicuous, and with them are associated many caterpillars, mostly species that burrow into trees. Next in importance are the ants that live in decaying wood, all of which are sought by woodpeckers and eaten in great quantities. Many ants are particularly harmful to timber, for if they find a small spot of decay in the vacant burrow of a wood borer, they enlarge the hole, and, as their colony is always on the increase, continue to eat away the wood until the whole trunk is honeycombed. Moreover, they are not accessible to birds generally, and could pursue their career of destruction unmolested were it not that the woodpeckers, with beaks and tongues especially fitted for such work, dig out and devour them. It is thus evident that woodpeckers are great conservators of forests. To them more than to any other agency we owe the preservation of timber from hordes of destructive insects.

[55] _Dryobates villosus_.

[56] _Dryobates pubecens_.

One of the larger woodpeckers familiar to everyone is the flicker, or golden-winged woodpecker[57] (fig. 21), which is generally distributed throughout the United States from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains. There it is replaced by the red-shafted flicker,[58] which extends westward to the Pacific. The two species are as nearly identical in food habits as their respective environments will allow. The flickers, while genuine woodpeckers, differ somewhat in habits from the rest of the family, and are frequently seen searching for food upon the ground. Like the downy and hairy woodpeckers, they feed upon wood-boring grubs and ants, but the number of ants eaten is much greater than that eaten by the other two species. Of the flickers' stomachs examined, three were completely filled with ants. Two of these contained more than 3,000 individuals each, while the third contained fully 5,000. These ants belong to species which live in the ground. It is these insects for which the flicker searches when it runs about in the grass, although some grasshoppers also are then taken. The flicker's habit of pecking holes in buildings sometimes greatly annoys its human friends, and it is particularly noticeable in the California species. Observation has shown that the object of the work is to obtain shelter for the winter. In the East most of the flickers are migratory, and only a few remain North where shelter is necessary. These generally find a safe retreat in the hollow tree In which they nested. In California, however, where the birds do not migrate, trees are not so abundant as in the East, and consequently buildings are brought into requisition, and in them holes are drilled, usually under the eaves, where snug nights' lodgings are found. Often a dozen holes may be seen in one building. Barns or other outbuildings are usually selected, though churches sometimes have been used.

[57] _Colaptes auratus_.

[58] _Colaptes cafer collaris_.

The red-headed woodpecker[59] (fig. 22) is well known east of the Rocky Mountains, but Is rather rare in New England. Unlike some of the other species, it prefers fence posts and telegraph poles to trees as a foraging ground. Its food therefore naturally differs from that of the preceding species, and consists largely of adult beetles and wasps which it frequently captures on the wing after the fashion of flycatchers. Grasshoppers also form an important part of the food. Among the beetles are a number of predacious ground species and some tiger beetles, which are useful insects. The red-head has been accused of robbing nests of other birds, and of pecking out the brains of young birds and poultry; but as the stomachs showed little evidence to substantiate this charge, the habit probably is exceptional.

[59] _Melanerpes erythrocephalus_.

The vegetable food of woodpeckers is varied, but consists largely of small fruits and berries. The downy and hairy woodpeckers eat such fruits as dogwood and Virginia creeper and seeds of poison ivy, sumac, and a few other shrubs. The flicker also eats a great many small fruits and the seeds of a considerable number of shrubs and weeds. None of the three species is much given to eating cultivated fruits or crops. The red-head has been accused of eating the larger kinds of fruit, as apples, and also of taking considerable corn. Stomach examinations show that to some extent these charges are substantiated, but that the habit is not prevalent enough to cause much damage. The bird is fond of mast, especially beechnuts, and when these nuts are plentiful it remains north all winter.

Woodpeckers apparently are the only agents which can successfully cope with certain insect enemies of the forest, and, to some extent, with those of fruit trees also. For this reason, if for no other, they should be protected in every possible way.

THE CUCKOOS.

Two species of cuckoos are common In the United States east of the Great Plains, the yellow-billed cuckoo[60] (fig. 23) and the black-billed cuckoo,[61] and in the West a relative of the yellow-bill, the California cuckoo,[62] ranges from Colorado and Texas to the Pacific coast. While the two species are quite distinct, the food habits of the yellow-bill and the black-bill do not greatly differ and their economic status is practically the same.

[60] _Coccyzus americanus_.

[61] _Coccyzus erythyropthalmus_.

[62] _Coccyzus americanus occidentalis_.

Examination of 155 stomachs has shown that these species are much given to eating caterpillars, and, unlike most birds, do not reject those covered with hair. In fact, cuckoos eat so many hairy caterpillars that the hairs pierce the inner lining of the stomach and remain there, and often when the stomach is opened it appears to be lined with a thin coating of fur.

An examination of the stomachs of 46 black-billed cuckoos, taken during the summer months, showed the remains of 906 caterpillars, 44 beetles, 96 grasshoppers, 100 sawflies, 30 stinkbugs, and 15 spiders. In all probability more individuals than these were represented, but their remains were too badly broken for recognition. Most of the caterpillars were hairy, and many of them belong to a genus that lives in colonies and feeds on the leaves of trees, including the apple tree. One stomach was filled with larvæ of a caterpillar belonging to the same genus as the tent caterpillar, and possibly to that species. Other larvæ were those of large moths, for which the bird seems to have a special fondness. The beetles were for the most part click beetles and weevils, as well as a few May beetles. The sawflies were contained in two stomachs, one of which held no less than 60 in the larval stage.

Of the yellow-billed cuckoo, 109 stomachs (collected from May to October) were examined. They contained 1,865 caterpillars, 93 beetles, 242 grasshoppers, 37 sawflies, 69 bugs, 6 flies, and 86 spiders. As in the case of the black-billed cuckoo, most of the caterpillars belonged to hairy species and many of them were of large size. One stomach contained 250 American tent caterpillars; another 217 fall webworms. The beetles were distributed among several families, all more or less harmful to agriculture. In the same stomach which contained the tent caterpillars were 2 Colorado potato beetles; in another were 3 goldsmith beetles, and remains of several other large beetles. Besides the ordinary grasshoppers were several katydids and tree crickets. The sawflies were in the larval stage, in which they resemble caterpillars so closely that they are commonly called false caterpillars by entomologists. The bugs consisted of stinkbugs and cicadas, or dog-day harvest flies, with the single exception of one wheel bug, which was the only useful insect eaten.

BOBWHITE.

No bird is better known to country residents than the bobwhite[63] (see illustration on title-page). The bird's cheery calls the year round form part of the most pleasant associations of country life, and its neat form and harmonious coloration, and especially its confiding habits, make it a general favorite.

[63] _Colinus virginianus._

Any bushy fence row serves as a retreat for its nest, or for winter shelter, and weed-covered fields are its favorite feeding places. Weed seeds form more than half the total food and include those of all the worst weed pests of the farm. Among them may be mentioned crab, cockspur, witch, and foxtail grasses, sheep sorrel, smartweed, bindweed, lamb's-quarters, pigweeds, corn cockle, chickweed, charlock, partridge pea, beggar lice, nail grass, rib grass, ragweed, and Spanish needles.

Acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, and pine seeds make up about 2.5 per cent of the food, and wild fruit about 10 per cent The fruits include berries of palmetto, smilax, wax myrtle, mulberry, sassafras, blackberries and raspberries, rose haws, cherry, sumac, grapes, sour gum, blueberries, honeysuckle, partridgeberry, and a number of others. The bobwhite feeds to a slight extent upon buds and leaves, including those of yellow and red sorrel, cinquefoil, and clover.

Grain forms scarcely more than a sixth of the food, and most of it is taken during winter and early spring when nothing but waste grain is available The habit of gleaning this after the harvest is beneficial to the farm, for volunteer grain is not desirable, especially where it serves to maintain certain insect and fungus pests. Although most of the grain and seed crops grown upon the farm are represented in bobwhite's dietary, no significant damage can be attributed to the bird.

Animal food, chiefly insects, composed nearly a sixth of the bird's subsistence. From June to August, inclusive, when insects are most numerous, their proportion in the food is about 36 per cent. The variety of insect food is great and includes a number of the most destructive agricultural pests. Among them may be mentioned the Colorado potato beetle, 12-spotted cucumber beetle, bean leaf beetle, squash ladybird, wire-worms. May beetles, corn billbugs, clover-leaf weevil, army worm, boilworm, cutworms, and chinch bug.

The food habits of the bobwhite undoubtedly are beneficial and the bird should be maintained in numbers on every farm. This is not to say that all shooting should be prohibited, for the bird is very prolific. But its numbers should not be reduced below what the available nesting sites and range will support. On the other hand the policy of absolute protection recently adopted by one of the States is not called for by strictly economic considerations.

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ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WHEN THIS PUBLICATION WAS LAST PRINTED

_Secretary of Agriculture_ Henry A. Wallace. _Under Secretary_ Rexford G. Tugwell. _Assistant Secretary_ M. L. Wilson. _Director of Extension Work_ C. W. Warburton. _Director of Personnel_ W. W. Stockberger. _Director of Information_ M. S. Eisenhower. _Director of Finance_ W. A. Jump. _Solicitor_ Seth Thomas. _Agricultural Adjustment Chester C. Davis, Administration_ _Administrator_. _Bureau of Agricultural Economics_ A. G. Black, _Chief_. _Bureau of Agricultural Engineering_ S. H. McCrory, _Chief_. _Bureau of Animal Industry_ John R. Mohler, _Chief_. _Bureau of Biological Survey_ J. N. Darling, _Chief_. _Bureau of Chemistry and Soils_ H. G. Knight, _Chief_. _Bureau of Dairy Industry_ O. E. Reed, _Chief_. _Bureau of Entomology and Plant Lee A. Strong, _Chief_. Quarantine_ _Office of Experiment Stations_ James T. Jardine, _Chief_. _Food and Drug Administration_ Walter G. Campbell, _Chief_. _Forest Service_ Ferdinand A. Silcox, _Chief_. _Grain Futures Administration_ J. W. T. Duvel, _Chief_. _Bureau of Home Economics_ Louise Stanley, _Chief_. _Library_ Claribel R. Barnett, _Librarian_. _Bureau of Plant Industry_ Frederick D. Richey, _Chief_. _Bureau of Public Roads_ Thomas H. MacDonald, _Chief_. _Weather Bureau_ Willis R. Gregg, _Chief_.

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1935

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Price 5 cents

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Transcriber Notes

All illustrations were moved so as to not split paragraphs. There does not appear to be a footnote numbered "2", therefore, the one numbered "3" and all following footnote numbers were decremented by 1.

End of Project Gutenberg's USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 630, by F. E. L. Beal