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500 Mallards feeding in rice stubble 12 inches tall. Birds [[tame?]].

Rusty & Crow Blackbirds, Meadowlarks, & English Sparrows feeding in roads on rice dropped from wagons

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Basye place — 10 miles South Stuttgart. 80-100 acres Honduras rice total loss from damage by ducks. The rice was cut & put in shocks. About Nov. 15-20 ducks began to come in and in 3-7 days had cleaned out the field. Attempt was made to thresh some but was failure yield being less than gallon to shock. Birds shot out at night without effect. Examination of field — upper ¼ had been touched by frost so that lower half of grain heads had not filled out. Lower portion of field showed good yield. About 1/5 - 1/6 of the shocks had been pulled down by the birds in feeding & in a few instances the straw had actually been trampled in the mud. In nearly all shocks heads had been entirely eaten out. Found a few heads remaining in inner shocks. Much dung scattered about. Samples collected & sample rice heads taken.

W. J. Dern no damage