36 BIEDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



Of insects eaten by the shrike, the largest item is Orthoptera — 

 that is, grasshoppers and crickets — which amount to nearly 43 percent 

 of the whole food. ' They are eaten in every month of the year, and 

 in August and September reach nearly TO percent. These are the 

 normal grasshopper months, the ones in which Eastern birds enjoy 

 their annual grasshopper feast. Ordinary grasshoppers form the 

 greater part of this item of food, but a good many crickets are eaten, 

 especially the ])rown and striped so-called wood crickets. One group 

 of these is particularly noticeable — a group of large soft-bodied mon- 

 sters of the genus StenojDelmatus, many of which live under dead 

 leaves, stones, and rubbish, and do not often voluntarily show them- 

 selves b}'^ the light of clay. It seems strange that the shrike, a lover 

 of open and sunshine, manages to discover these creatures. They are 

 sometimes called ' sand-crickets,' and perhaps at times come out into 

 tlie open, but the writer has never seen one except when dug from 

 under rubbish. It is not known whether these insects are harmful or 

 beneficial, so the shrike's consumption of them has no economic inter- 

 est. It is quite the contrary, hoAvever. Avith regard to grasshoppers, 

 for they are harmful in all stages of existence, and the shrike is 

 directly beneficial to the farmer to the extent that it destroys them. 



Beetles collectively are second in importance in the shrike's diet. 

 They amount to 16 percent of the food, but of this about 7 percent 

 are the useful ground beetles (Carabidfe) and carrion beetles (Sil- 

 phida^). The rest are mostly harmful. The presence of these last 

 is a curious point in this connection. These insects are probably use- 

 ful, and while no great number of them are consumed, it seems rather 

 strange that they are eaten at all. The surroundings of these beetles 

 are not pleasant, and they do not generally serve as food for liirds 

 except crows and other garbage hunters. Is it possible that the 

 shrike finds them on the game which it has hung on twigs or thorns? 

 They were noted in (S of the 1.^4 stomachs, and three species were iden- 

 tified. Most of the beetles eaten by the shrike are of the larger spe- 

 cies, but it does not disdain small game, and quite a number of small 

 leaf-beetles and weevils were among the others. 



Ants and Avasps amount to something more than 11 percent in the 

 diet of the shrike. Naturally they are mostly eaten in the warmer 

 months, and the Avasps far outnumber the ants. 



Moths and caterpillars are taken to the extent of someAA'hat more 

 than T percent, and seem to be a regular though snudl component of 

 the food. T^nlike the Avasps, the greater number of these AA'ere eaten 

 in the colder months. One stomach Avas entirely filled Avith the re- 

 mains of 15 moths, a most unusual occurrence, for adult Lepidoptera 

 do not form a large element of the food of any bird yet iuA'estigated. 



Bugs and flies ai'e eaten occasionally. Tlie stomachs taken in Feb- 

 ruary contained a good j)ercentage of Hemiptera, and so did those 



