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BIRDS USEFUL IN THE WAR AGAINST THE COTTON BOLL WEEVIL.

By H.W.  Henshaw, Chief of the Biological Survey.

The main purpose of this circular is to direct the attention of cotton growers and others in the cotton growing states to the importance of birds in the boll weevil war, to emphasize the need of protection for them, and to suggest means to increase the numbers and extend the range of certain of the more important kinds.

Investigations by the Biological Survey show that thirty-eight species of birds eat boll weevils.  While some eat them only sparingly others eat them freely, and no fewer than forty-seven adult weevils have been found in the stomach of a single cliff swallow.  Of the birds known at the present time to feed on the weevil, among the most important are the orioles, nighthawks, and, foremost of all, the swallows (including the purple martin).

ORIOLES.—­Six kinds of orioles live in Texas, though but two inhabit the southern states generally.  Orioles are among the few birds that evince a decided preference for weevils, and as they persistently hunt for the insects on the bolls, they fill a place occupied by no other birds.  They are protected by law in nearly every state in the Union, but their bright plumage renders them among the most salable of birds for millinery purposes, and despite protective laws, considerable numbers are still killed for the hat trade.  It is hardly necessary to point out that their importance as insect eaters everywhere demands their protection, but more especially in the cotton belt.

NIGHTHAWK.—­The nighthawk, or bull-bat, also renders important service in the destruction of weevils, and catches them on the wing in considerable numbers, especially during its migration.  Unfortunately, the nighthawk is eaten for food in some sections of the South, and considerable numbers are shot for this purpose.  The bird’s value for food, however, is infinitesimal as compared with the service it renders the cotton grower and other agriculturists, and every effort should be made to spread broadcast a knowledge of its usefulness as a weevil destroyer, with a view to its complete protection.

SWALLOWS.—­Of all the birds now known to destroy weevils, swallows are the most important.  Six species occur in Texas and the southern states.  The martin, the barn swallow, the bank swallow, the roughwing, and the cliff swallow breed locally in Texas, and all of them, except the cliff swallow, breed in the other cotton states.  The white-bellied, or tree swallow, nests only in the North, and by far the greater number of cliff swallows nest in the North and West.

[Illustration:  THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE The Deadly Enemy of the Cotton-Boll Weevil From the “American Natural History”]