3§4 ANNtJAL, RE3FORT OF TH£2 Off. Doc!. 



found. This materially decreased the number of Blue Birds nesting 

 in this State during the summer. Several reports sent us from 

 Lancaster, Dauphin and other counties, concerning Black Birds 

 picking large holes in growing English Walnuts before they were 

 half grown. This did not appear to be for food, and the suggestion 

 has been made by Mr. Gabriel Hiester, President of the State Horti- 

 cultural Association, that it may have been to use the bitter juic<) 

 of the English Walnut as an insecticide for their parasites, as he 

 noticed them picking the walnuts and then preening their feathers. 



Unusual complaints have been made against the English Sparrows, 

 especially for their damage to peas growing in gardens, which they 

 pulled as soon as they appeared above ground, and of which they 

 also ate into the pod before the young peas were ready to pick. 

 Much complaint has also reached us of English Sparrows eating 

 the buds of fruit trees, and if legislation could abate this nuisance^ 

 we should be heartily in favor of it. 



The statements have come to us that the Wild Pigeon has been 

 several times in the northern and mountainous parts of this State, 

 and we have a letter recently received upon this subject, stating 

 that a wild pigeon was seen nesting on a stump last summer. 



We wish to speak in some detail of the stomach contents of va- 

 rious species of birds that have been sent to the ofQce of the Eco- 

 nomic Zoologist during the past year. Among these are the fol- 

 lowing: 



The Horned Grebe. — V^e have received and examined the contents 

 of six specimens of Horned Grebe and have found sand and vegeta- 

 ble matter in practically all. In three there were fragments of 

 Black Beetles, probably the so-called Whirligig Beetles, which live 

 on the surface of the water. 



The Blue-winged Teal. — A Blue-winged Teal was found to have fed 

 upon aquatic snails or moUusks, seeds of Polygonum or smart-weed, 

 and other weed seeds. 



The American Black Scoter.— An American Black Scoter was 

 found to contain a mussel-shell 5x2.5 centimeters, another small 

 bivalve, and fragments of other bivalves, showing that it is decidedly 

 a mollusk-eater. 



The Coot or Mud-hen. — Several specimens of Coots were examined 

 and all were found to contain white sand and vegetable fibres, while 

 one had eaten a large number of small snails. However, the evi- 

 dences are that it is to a great extent a feeder on aquatic vegetation. 



The Bittern or Indian Hen.— The stomachs of two Bitterns were 

 examined, one of v/hich was empty, but the other contained one of 

 the night-flying moths, the remains of a cricket, and the spines and 

 fleshy tissue of a caterpillar, probably the destructive Woolly Bear 

 larva. The stomach of this Bittern was lined with the bristles pf 

 such insect larva. This is a new and interesting point for the Bit- 

 tern. It also contained the seed of Spanish Needles. Thus we see 

 this aquatic bird, which is too often shot by gunners, is justly pro- 

 tected by the law. 



The American Goshawk. — In the fall or early winter there was 

 an unusual southward flight of the American Goshav»^k, or Blue Hen 

 Hawk, which nests mostly northward and comes into this State 

 only in the winter. Of four Goshav.ks examined we found the 



