. Food habits of the grosbeaks . the cardinals habit of devouringsmartweed seeds is beneficial, not only in abating direct injury bythese pernicious weeds but also in tending to diminish the number ofaphids by destroying their most important host plants. The seeds of foxtail grasses (figs. 17 and 37) are next in impor-tance. Foxtail is only too well known for its keen competition withcultivated crops, and is to be classed ambng the most troublesomeweeds. Its seeds compose percent of the cardinals food, 51 outof 498 birds examined having eaten-them. Bur grass {Genchrustribuloides, PI. II,
. Food habits of the grosbeaks . the cardinals habit of devouringsmartweed seeds is beneficial, not only in abating direct injury bythese pernicious weeds but also in tending to diminish the number ofaphids by destroying their most important host plants. The seeds of foxtail grasses (figs. 17 and 37) are next in impor-tance. Foxtail is only too well known for its keen competition withcultivated crops, and is to be classed ambng the most troublesomeweeds. Its seeds compose percent of the cardinals food, 51 outof 498 birds examined having eaten-them. Bur grass {Genchrustribuloides, PI. II, fig. 10) should be mentioned here, as it is pos-sible some of its seeds were wrongly classed with those of foxtail,the shelled kernels of which they greatly resemble. They have beenpositively identified in several stomachs. Henry Nehrling * says car-dinals are very fond of bur grass seeds or sand spurs * * * »Birds of E. N. A., 1881, p. 109. Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty, II, 1896, p. 196. 12 FOOD HABITS OF THE Fig. 2.—Seeds of cockspur grassiEchinochloa erus-galH). (FromHillmau, Nevada ExperimentStation.) which are furnished with formidable spines. This grass is a very vileweed of the southern fields and the orange groves of Florida. The seeds of other grasses, includingcockspur grass {Echinochloa crus-galli,fig. 2), crab grass {Syntherisma sangui-nalis), and allied species, which arewell-known weeds, were fed upon by 31redbirds, yard grass (Eleusine indica)by 31, and unidentified grasses by of the nearly related sedges{Carex et al.) were devoured by 41 car-dinals, those of vervians {Ve^^henahastata, fig. 3, and V. lorticwfolia) by25. Twenty-two birds ate seeds ofthe well-known ragweeds (fig. 6), and 39 those of various the other weed seeds eaten in smaller quantities are thoseof dodder, a serious pest in grain crops;vetch, dock, sow thistle, plantains, includ-ing the detestable ribgrass (fig. 4); tum-bleweed (fig. 18), sunflower, vi
Size: 1791px × 1395px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherw, booksubjectbirds
