lycatchers snap up the weevils near trees and shrubbery. Wrens hunt
them out when concealed under bark or rubbish. Blackbirds catch them on
the ground, as do the killdeer, titlark, meadow lark, and others; while
orioles hunt for them on the bolls. But it is the peculiar function of
swallows to catch the weevils as they are making long flights, leaving
the cotton fields in search of hiding places in which to winter or
entering them to continue their work of devastation.

Means have been taken to inform residents of the northern states of the
value of the swallow tribe to agriculturists generally, and particularly
to cotton planters, in the belief that the number of swallows breeding
in the North can be substantially increased. The cooperation of the
northern states is important, since birds bred in the North migrate
directly through the southern states in the fall on their way to the
distant tropics, and also in the spring on their return.

[Illustration: THE NIGHTHAWK
A Goatsucker, not a Song-bird; but it Feeds Exclusively Upon Insects]

Important as it is to increase the number of northern breeding swallows,
it is still more important to increase the number nesting in the South
and to induce the birds there to extend their range over as much of the
cotton area as possible. Nesting birds spend much more time in the South
than migrants, and during the weeks when the old birds are feeding young
they are almost incessantly engaged in the pursuit of insects.

It is not, of course, claimed that birds alone can stay the ravages of
the cotton boll weevil in Texas, but they materially aid in checking the
advance of the pest into the other cotton states. Important auxiliaries,
in destroying these insects, birds aid in reducing their numbers within
safe limits, and once within safe limits in keeping them there. Hence it
is for the interests of the cotton states that special efforts be made
to protect and care for the weevil-eating species, and to increase their
numbers in every way possible.--(End of the circular.)

* * * * *

CONDENSED NOTES ON THE FOOD HABITS OF CERTAIN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.

Millions of Americans and near-Americans, both old and young, now need
to be shown the actual figures that represent the value of our birds as
destroyers of the insects, weeds and the small rodents that are swarming
to overrun and devour our fields, orchards and forests. Will our people
never learn