260 PROCEEDINGS <>F THE ACADEMY OF [1889. 



NOTES ON THE FOOD OF BIRDS. 

 BY F. C. BAKER. 



The lack of satisfactory information upon the food of the birds of 

 the United States, abundantly justifies additional investigation. The 

 value of exact knowledge of' food in the development of the law of 

 natural selection, as well as to the agriculturist, is obvious. The facts 

 contained in the following article are the result of observations 

 made in the field during a period of four months (Jan., Feb., March 

 and April, 1889), at Micco, Brevard Co., Florida, together with 

 careful examinations in the laboratory. Upwards of three hundred 

 birds have been dissected and the contents of their stomachs care- 

 fully noted. It will be seen that a number of birds subsist mainly 

 upon mollusks, while others feed entirely upon seeds and berries, or 

 the vegetables of the farmer's garden ; while all are to some extent 

 insectivorous. A discovery of interest was the presence of several 

 specimens of Pupa rupieola Say, in the stomach of the catbird, 

 Galeoscoptes earolinensis. My observations upon the Brown Pelican, 

 Pelecaniis fuscus, bring to light some obscure points in regard to the 

 food of that bird. 



Larus argentatus Briinn. 



The four specimens dissected all contained fish. 

 Sterna maxima Bodd. 



Fifteen specimens dissected contained small specimens of Squalius 

 gibbosus. A single individual contained forty fishes of an average 

 length of three inches. 



Anhinga anhinga Linn. 



Five specimens dissected. Three males contained each one 

 Squalius gibbosus, fourteen inches in length. Two females contained 

 a full crop of small fishes. Before the young of the species leave the 

 nest, a parasitic worm is found in their stomachs, which works its 

 way to the brain and thrives there in clusters of ten or more. Nine- 

 tenths of both old and young are thus infested, and yet are in 

 apparently good health. 



Phalacrocorax dilophus floridanus, And. 



Six specimens dissected all contained Squalius gibbosus. 



