abstracts: ornithology 51 



ORNITHOLOGY. — Food habits of the swallows, a family of valuable 

 native birds. F. E. L. BeaIv. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 619: 1-28; 

 pis. 1-2. 1918. 

 So far as agriculture is concerned, there is no more useful family of 

 birds than the swallows. Of the thirteen species of this group occurring 

 in the United vStates, seven are so widely distributed that their food 

 habits are of much economic importance. These are Progne subis, 

 Petrochelidon htnifrons, Hirundo ntstica erythrogastris, Iridoprocne 

 bicolor, Tachycineta thalsassina, Riparia riparia, and Stelgidopteryx serri- 

 pennis. The study of the food of these species shows that they are, 

 like the rest of the swallows, practically not at all harmful to man, 

 since they injure neither wild nor cultivated fruit or seeds, nor molest 

 other birds. With the exception of one species, Iridoprocne bicolor, all 

 the United vStates swallows are almost exclusively insectivorous, yet 

 they do not disturb domestic bees or silkworms or devour unusual 

 numbers of other beneficial insects. On the other hand, they feed on 

 some of agriculture's worst insect pests, among them the cotton -boll 

 weevil, clover weevil, alfalfa weevil, and chinch bug. 



Since swallows feed almost entirely while on the wing, it follows that 

 most of the insects they catch are flying species. Hymen op tera, 

 Diptera, Hemiptera, and Coleoptera, form about eighty-five per cent 

 of the food of the swallows in the United States. Orthoptera, a favorite 

 item of food with many birds, and Lepidoptera are not eaten to any 

 considerable extent. Among the food elements of each of the United 

 States species examined there were found a great number of different 

 species of insects, and lists of such discovered during the course of 

 stomach examinations are given; that under Petrochelidon lunifrons 

 amounts to 149. The only North American swallow that subsists 

 to any extent on vegetable matter is Iridoprocne bicolor ; in the case of 

 this species to the extent of twenty per cent. Most of the vegetable 

 fruit of this bird is made up of the berries of the bayberry; the rest 

 of such wild berries as those of the red cedar and Viriginia creeper. 



Harry C. Obbrholser. 



ORNITHOLOGY.— iVo/^5 on North American birds. V. Harry C. 

 Oberholser. The Auk 35: 185-187. 1918. 

 The North American goshawk, Accipiter atricapillus Wilson, appears 

 to be a subspecies of the European goshawk, and its two present sub- 

 species should, therefore, stand as Astur gentilis atricapillus (Wilson); 

 and Astur gentilis striatulus Ridgway. The American golden-crowned 

 kinglets are evidently subspecies of the European bird, and their names 



