PRAIRIE HEN. 15 



destroys also the potato beetle {Leptinotarsa decemlineata) ^ in both 

 adult and larval stages, and the injurious 12-spotted cucumber 

 beetle {Diabrotica 12- punctata) . The stomach of a bird collected by 

 H. P. Attwater, November 7, 1893, in Aransas County, Tex., contained 

 16 of these latter insects. Among other leaf-eating beetles eaten may 

 be mentioned Chrysomela pulchra^ Chrysomela suturalis^ DisonycJia 

 qiiinquevittata, Monoxia puncticoUis, and Graphops puhescens. The 

 injurious May beetles (Lachnosterna sp.) also are destroyed, as well 

 as weevils {Thecesternus humeixdis and other species). Like many 

 other birds, the prairie hen is partial to ground beetles. It has been 

 known to take such kinds as Anisodactylus rusticus, Agonoderus 

 pallipes, Amara sp., and Chlcenius sp. It probably feeds also on the 

 different abundant species of Harpalus. Ladybirds are at times de- 

 stroyed, as was attested by remains of Hippodamia convergens con- 

 tained in one stomach. 



Miscellaneous insects are eaten in small numbers, but are inter- 

 esting because they include a number of the worst insect foes, such as 

 the cotton worm [Alabama argillacea) ^°' the army worm {Heliophila 

 unipuncta), several species of cutworms, the yellow bear caterpillar 

 (Diacrisia virginica), cankerworms (Geometridce) , the Angoumois 

 grain moth (Sitotroga cerealella), and the chinch bug {Blissus 

 leucopterus) . The bird's habits of eating chinch bugs has been re- 

 ported by B. F. Gault, of Chicago, and Prof. F. M. Webster, of 

 the Bureau of Entomology. Other bugs, including stink bugs (Eus- 

 chistus sp.) and the tree hoppers {Stictocephalus sp.) make part of 

 the food. In addition to ants, such as Formica exsectoides, the prairie 

 hen occasionally eats other Hymenoptera, including Tiphia inornata 

 and gall insects contained in the galls of Cynipidse. In its liking for 

 galls and their contents the bird resembles the ruffed grouse and the 

 British pheasant. 



Further study of the food habits of the prairie hen will unquestion- 

 ably add largely to the foregoing enumeration of insects, but our pres- 

 ent knowledge, incomplete as it is, shows the general character of its 

 insect food, and establishes the value of the species as a destroyer of 



insect pests. 



Vegetable Food. 



From October to April, inclusive, the prairie hen takes little but 

 vegetable food. This element amounts to 85.89 percent for the year. 

 Fruit constitutes 11.79 percent; leaves, flowers, and shoots, 25.09 per- 

 cent; seeds, 14.87 percent; grain, 31.06 percent, and miscellaneous 

 vegetable material, 3.08 ])ercent. 



Like the bobwhite and the ruffed grouse, the prairie hen is fond of 

 rose hips, and the abundant roses of the prairie yield 11.01 percent 



o Fourth Rep. U. S. Ent. Commission, p. 88, 1885. 



