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.
* * * * *
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_.