File:Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada (1916) (14732344546).jpg

Identifier: birdsintheirrela00weed (find matches)
Title: Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Weed, Clarence Moores, 1864-1947 Dearborn, Ned
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Philadelphia London : Lippincott
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ns of two birds, one shrew (Bkt-rina), one common mouse (J/^/.s), and three hundred andforty-five field-mice (Microtus). Under a Norway spruce nearby, where a short-eared owl roosted regularly and one of thelong-eared occasionally, were found between February 26and Marcli 26, twenty-eight days, evidence of one crawfish,five birds, two shrews, one jumping mouse (Zapns), and onehundred and five field-mice. Pellets believed to have comefrom tlie same owls, found under trees within a radius of aneighth of a mile, contained remains of five birds (Begulus,Junco, Ccrthia), seven shrews, and one hundred and forty-eight mice. Taken altogether here was an equivalent of oneowl for two hundred and forty-six days, to which are creditedtwelve small birds, ten shrews, and six hundred mice, orabout two and one-third animals, mainly mice, per day. For twenty-two consecutive days, December 25 to January15, Dr. Montgomery counted four owls in the arbor-vitae tree 1 History of Birds, p. 225. Id., p. 143.
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THE AMOUNT OF FOOD CONSUMED BY BIRDS. 61 every day. The pellets taken from beneath the tree duringthat time showed parts of one finch, one shrew, and one hun-dred and ninety-nine mice. Dividing 201, the number slain,by 88, the number of days in which one owl would consumethe same amount, we have 2.28,—what he would have eaten-in one day. As it is probable tliat more or less pellets weredropped elsewhere, we may readily believe that the averagedaily consumption deduced from the whole number of pelletsis within the lines of truth. An adult crow that had been slightly wounded in the wingwas once brought in and kept alive by us awhile for a foodexperiment. He was put into a small box, twelve by thirteenby twenty inches, and kept supplied with water, cracked corn,and oats. In addition, from twenty to sixty angle-wormswere given him each day for five days. By that time he w^asfairly tame and ate freely wdiile being watched. We secureda quantity of small fish (Funchdus:), which were abunda

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