222 ENTOMOLOGY 



(ants, caterpillars, wire-worms and Carabidae) forty-two per cent, of the 

 food; and in July, raspberries, blackberries and currants form seventy- 

 nine per cent, and insects (mostly caterpillars, beetles and crickets) but 

 twenty per cent, of the food. In August, insects rise to forty-three per 

 cent, and fruits drop to fifty-six per cent., and these are mostly cherries, 

 of which two thirds are wild kinds. In September, ants form fifteen per 

 cent, of the food, caterpillars five per cent, and fruits (mostly grapes, 

 mountain-ash berries and moonseed berries) seventy per cent. In 

 October, the food consists chiefly of wild grapes (fifty-three per cent.), 

 ants (thirty-five per cent.), and caterpillars (six per cent.). 



For the year, judging from the stomach contents of one hundred and 

 fourteen birds, garden fruits form only twenty-nine per cent, of the food 

 of the robin, while insects constitute two thirds of the food. The results 

 are confirmed by those of Professor Beal in Michigan, who found that 

 more than forty-two per cent, of the food of the robin consists of insects 

 with some other animal matter, the remainder being made up of various 

 small fruits, but notably the wild kinds. 



Upon the whole, the robin deserves to be protected as an energetic 

 destroyer of cutworms, white grubs and other injurious insects, and the 

 comparatively few cultivated berries that the bird appropriates are 

 ordinarily but a meagre compensation for the valuable services rendered 

 to man by this familiar bird. 



Catbird. Not so much can be said for the catbird, however, for, 

 though its food habits are similar to those of the robin, it arrives later and 

 departs earlier, with the result that it is less dependent than the robin 

 upon insects and that berries form a larger percentage of its total food. 



In May, eighty-three per cent, of the food of the catbird consists of 

 insects, mostly beetles (Carabidae, Rhynchophora, etc.), crane-flies, ants 

 and caterpillars (Noctuidae); while dry sumach berries are eaten to the 

 extent of seven per cent. For the first half of June, the record is much 

 the same, with an increase, however, in the number of May beetles eaten; 

 in the second half of the month the food consists chiefly of small fruits, 

 especially raspberries, cherries and currants; so that for the month as a 

 whole, only forty-nine per cent, of the food is made up of insects. This 

 falls to eighteen per cent, in July, when three quarters of the food con- 

 sists of small fruits, mostly blackberries, however. In August, with the 

 diminution of the smaller cultivated fruits, the percentage of insects 

 rises to forty-six per cent., nearly one half of which is made up of ants 

 and the rest of caterpillars, grasshoppers, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, etc. 

 In September, with the appearance of wild cherries, elderberries, Virginia 



