The practical value of birds in controlling insect pests should be more generally recognized. It may be an easy matter to exterminate the birds in an orchard or grain field, but it is an extremely difficult one to control the insect pests. It is certain, too, that the value of our native sparrows as weed destroyers is not appreciated. Weed seed forms an important item of the winter food of many of these birds, and it is impossible to estimate the immense numbers of noxious weeds which are thus annually destroyed. If crows or blackbirds are seen in numbers about cornfields, or if woodpeckers are noticed at work in an orchard, it is perhaps not surprising that they are accused of doing harm. Careful investigation, however, often shows that they are actually destroying noxious insects; and also that even those which do harm at one season may compensate for it by eating insect pests at another. Insects are eaten at all times by the majority of land birds. During the breeding season most kinds subsist largely on this food, and rear their young exclusively upon it. [Illustration: FIG. 323.--HEAD OF DUCK.] [Illustration: FIG. 324.--JACANA. (Mexico, Southwest Texas, and Florida.) =Questions:= What appears to be the use of such long toes? What peculiarity of wing? head?] =Partridges.=--Speaking of 13 birds which he shot, Dr. Judd says: These 13 had taken weed seed to the extent of 63 per cent of their food. Thirty-eight per cent was ragweed, 2 per cent tick trefoil, partridge pea, and locust seeds, and 23 per cent seeds of miscellaneous weeds. About 14 per cent of the quail’s food for the year consists of animal matter (insects and their allies). Prominent among these are the Colorado potato beetle, the striped squash beetle, the cottonboll-weevil, grasshoppers. As a weed destroyer the quail has few, if any, superiors. Moreover, its habits are such that it is almost constantly on the ground, where it is brought in close contact with both weed seeds and ground-living insects. It is a good ranger, and, if undisturbed, will patrol every day all the fields in its vicinity as it searches for food. [Illustration: FIG. 325.--NIGHTINGALE, × ¹⁄₃. FIG. 326.--SKYLARK, × ¹⁄₃. Two celebrated European songsters.] =Doves.=--The food of the dove consists of seeds of weeds, together with some grain. The examination of the contents of 237 stomachs shows that over 99 per cent of the food consists wholly of vegetable matter. =Cuckoos.=--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 stink bugs, and 15 spiders. Of the yellow-billed cuckoos, or “rain-crow,” 109 stomachs collected from May to October, inclusive, were examined. The contents consisted of 1,865 caterpillars, 93 beetles, 242 grasshoppers, 37 sawflies, 69 bugs, 6 flies, and 86 spiders.