254 THE CONDOR .' VoL XVI Quail (Colinus virginSanus)have been introduced as game birds. Both have thrived. The pheasant is very abundant, averaging at least a pair to each twenty acres. The quail are abundant .in the river bottoms and are beginu?ng to be common in the higher parts of the tract. To sum up :--The following species have prospered greatly in the newly irrigated territory:--Killdeer, Mourning Dove, Arkansas Kingbird, Bullock Oriole, Brewer Blackbird, Merrill Song Sparrow, Bank Swallow, Western Robin, Ring-necked Pheasant and Quail. To get a general idea of the actual increase in numbers of the birds through irrigation, the following table based on the previous estimates is given.. The figures, as I have stated at the beginning of the article, are given for what they are worth in an attempt to substitute something more exact for indefinite adjectives. Before irrigation Killdeer ..................................................................... Mourning Dove .............. ? ................................... Burrowing Owl ..................................................... 2,000 Arkansas Kingbird ........ . .................................... Bullock Oriole ..................................................... Meadowlark ................................................................. 2,000 Brewer Blackbird ............................................... Horned Lark ....................................................... 8,000 Song Sparrow ............................................................ Bank Swallow .......................................................... Sage Thrasher ............................................................... 1,000 Robin .............. : .............................................................. Pheasant .................................................................... Quail ........................................................................... Other species .................................................................... 10,000 After irrigation 6,000 6,200 2,000 1,000 1,000 12,400 10,000 10,000 2,000 2,000 6,200 2,000 20,000 Total ......................................................... : ........ 23,000 80,800 All the species common now appear to be beneficial to agriculture with the possible exception of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, which perhaps might be classified with those species benefiting by irrigation, though I do not know that it nests away from the river. It is apparently increasing in numbers and no small bird is safe from its daring evolutions under orchard trees and through thickets. The Sage Thrashers, as I have described previously in The Auk, nest in the sage brush but later bring their young into the irrigated areas where they live largely on small fruit. As these do not go in flocks larger than the family group, and are very local in their habitat, any family that becomes a nuisance can easily be shot. out, thereby stopping any further thrasher damages for the season. Robins, if permitted, will usually take the sweet c?erry crop, but that crop in this part of the valley is killed four years out of five by the frost, and the slight damage from the Robins is more than made up by the good they do. One of the potential pests which hangs over the Yakima Valley is the Al- falfa caterpillar (Eurymus eurytheme). During my first summer in the val- ley these were abundant, but not enough so to serionsly injure the crop. Dur- ing the second haying that summer the leaves and litter about the stacks while harvesting the hay were fairly alive with the caterpillars, but since then they have not been so abundant. The Meadowlarks and Pheasants have apparently
