Geology Reports⌕ Search

Geology topics

John Van Oosten

Publications and source records attributed to John Van Oosten.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
USGS1939

Save the Great Lakes fisheries!

During the winters of 1939-40 and 1940-41, two experiments involving 456 bobwhite quail, were conducted at the Patuxent Research Refuge, Bowie, Maryland, to determine the palatability and comparative feeding value of 20 common wild quail-foods when offered as a part of a maintenance diet....2. Mortality was low on all diets, the highest occurring on that containing a mixture of bayberry and wax myrtle fruits. On all diets the birds showed increases in weight during the early winter. These gains were better maintained by birds on the wild foods than those on control diets composed entirely of cultivated feedstuffs.....3. There were statistically significant differences between the quantities of the various diets eaten.....4. For palatability and acceptability, seeds of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) and of shrub lespedeza (Lespedeza bicolor) were the preferred wild foods.....5. It is concluded that pen-reared bobwhite quail can be maintained successfully through winters in the vicinity of Washington, D. C., on diets containing 50 per cent of any one of the wild foods listed and 50 per cent of a high-caloric commercial seed mixture with yellow corn as the principal cereal.....6. The results of these 'cafeteria' studies, although interesting and indicative of the preferences of quail in confinement, do not necessarily represent selections that might be. made by bobwhites in the wild.

Outdoor American↗
USGS1939

The age, growth, sexual maturity, and sex ratio of the common whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis (Mitchill), of Lake Huron

During five years (1939-43) of nutritional research on pen-reared bobwhite quail at the Patuxent Research Refuge, Bowie, Maryland, observations on picking among birds of all ages showed the following results: 1. Picking occurred on all grains tested: corn, wheat, oats, oat groats, barley, millet, buckwheat, kaffir, and mixtures of cereals. The lowest incidence was with buckwheat as the sole grain in a growing diet....2. Picking occurred on all levels of fiber from one to 11per cent in a growing diet....3. Picking occurred on various grinds of corn, barley, and oats, but was least when these cereals were ground in a hammer mill with 3/32 inch mesh screen....4. The incidence was as high on diets containing animal protein as on those containing no animal protein. ....5. After picking began, the addition of one or two per cent of salt to the diet for several days was effective, in many instances, in checking the disorder. Results at the Refuge and the answers to questionnaires from 222 private propagators of gamebirds showed that in two-thirds. of the cases, treatment with an increased quantity of salt successfully stopped the trouble. As a preventative, however, salt was of little value. Picking occurred on both low and high levels of salt.....6. Supplementing the regular diet with certain feed concentrates such as fishmeal, soybean oil meal, liver meal, or chopped greens offered in a separate feeder for a day or two, was as efficacious as the addition of salt.....7. More picking occurred among quail chicks on a 22 per cent level of protein than on higher levels.....8. There was less picking on diets relished by the birds than on those seemingly unpalatable.....9. There was no correlation. between the amount of floor space per chick and the incidence of picking.....10. Increasing the feeding and drinking space seemed to have a marked beneficial effect.....11. Some adult birds on wire floors resorted to self-picking of their feet after the toes were frost-bitten.

Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, a↗
USGS1938

The food of the lake trout (Cristivomer namaycush namaycush) and of the lawyer (Lota maculosa) of Lake Michigan

This paper reports on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the contents of 4,979 lake trout stomachs (593 examined in 1930 and 1,253 collected in 1931 from southern Lake Michigan, 1,446 from northern Lake Michigan and 1,687 from Green Bay in 1932), and of a total of 1,528 lawyer stomachs (172 examined in 1930 and 734 collected in 1931 from southern Lake Michigan, 612 from northern Lake Michigan and 10 from Green Bay in 1932). The food of the trout consisted of 98 per cent by volume of fish of which Cottidae and Coregonidae were the principal constituents. Cottidae were dominant in southern Lake Michigan (72 per cent by volume), Coregonidae in northern Lake Michigan (51 per cent) but the lake shiner, Notropis atherinides, was most important in Green Bay in the spring of the year (64 per cent). The lawyer food consisted of 74 per cent by volume of fish and 26 per cent invertebrates. Dominant items were Cottidae (76 per cent by volume) in southern Lake Michigan, Coregonidae (51 per cent) and Pontoporeia (37 per cent) in northern Lake Michigan, and Percopsis (34 per cent) and Mysis (26 per cent) in Green Bay. Data are also presented on the frequency of occurrence (number of stomachs) of the food items and its variation with the sizes of the trout and lawyers, depths of water, seasons, and localities; on the number of individual fish of each species destroyed by the trout and lawyers; and on the calculated volume of the food fishes preceding digestion. The lake trout and lawyer are competitors for the same food, are both predators of the commercially important Coregonidae, and the lawyer through its consumption of invertebrates is a food competitor of the Coregonidae.

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society↗
USGS1938

Michigan's commercial fisheries of the Great Lakes

Five races of cottontail rabbits belonging to three species occur in Virginia. One of them, the Mearns cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus mearnsi), is reported here for the first time. It occurs in six southwestern counties of the state, while the eastern cottontail (S. f. mallurus) occurs in the remainder of the state with the exception of Smith and Fishermans islands off the eastern coast of Cape Charles, where it is replaced by Hitchens cottontail (S. f. hitchensi). The New England cottontail (S. transitionalis) is found on the higher mountain peaks, above 3000 feet, and the swamp rabbit (S. palustris) occurs in the Dismal Swamp region of southeastern Virginia.....The height of the breeding season for the eastern cottontail in Virginia is March and April, but breeding continues through the entire year except in December and January. The average litter size based on embryo counts was 4.7. The sex ratio of 234 specimens from all parts of the state, taken mostly in the December to February period, was 53 males to 47 females. That of a group of 145 rabbits live-trapped at Blacksburg during February and Marchwas 58 males to 42 females. The figures show that males are more active than females during the winter months, and therefore are more easily taken then....In transplanting cottontails from one section of the state to another, it is recommended that only cottontails of the same race as those originally present in the region being restocked be released there....Tularemia is not a common disease among rabbits in Virginia, but the rabbit ticks are often carriers of the disease and may transmit it to rabbits. Rabbit ticks are also found to be carriers of Rocky Mountain fever and American Q. fever. After the ticks drop off the rabbits to hibernate in the ground, which is likely to occur during mid-winter in Virginia, there is relatively little danger of humans contracting tularemia by contact with rabbits. Present laws in Virginia which prohibit rabbit hunting until the opening of the general hunting season, November 15and November 20--west and east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, respectively--protect the licensed hunters to which these regulations apply, but landowners or tenants are still allowed to take rabbits for their own use on their own land at any time. It is recommended that as a public health measure the taking of cottontails be completely prohibited to all until the opening of the general hunting season.

Michigan History Magazine↗