38 BIRDS OF CALTFORNTA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



were filled with beetles, ants, wasps, and ciickets. In a bird so 

 tliorouo-hly insectivorovis as the shrike it is not probable that the food 

 of the nestlings ditfers essentially from that of adults. 



As a feature of the landscape and as lending animation to rural 

 scenes the shrike in California is a pronounced success, and when one 

 sees him jauntily balai\cing on a telephone wire it is pleasant to 

 reflect that in his economic relations he is as admirable as he is from 

 the esthetic point of view. 



VIREOS. 



The vireos are a group of rather small tree-haunting birds of plain 

 colors, modest habits, and sweet but unobtrusive voices. One or the 

 other of the several species inhabits pretty much everything in the 

 way of a tree from the monarchs of the forest down to the humblest 

 underbrush. In thickly settled country vireos inhabit gardens, 

 orchards, and city parks, and shade trees along the village streets. 

 Most of them are migrants, and leave the United States in winter, 

 but a few remain on the Pacific coast throughout the year. Their 

 food consists largely of insects, though a little fruit and some seeds 

 are occasionally eaten. 



In the insect diet of the vireos there is one element which consti- 

 tutes a bar sinister on an otherwise brilliant escutcheon. All the 

 species investigated show a decided taste for ladybirds — that is, 

 coccinellicl beetles. No other genus of birds, nor any single species 

 (with one possible exception), so far has been known to manifest 

 such fondness for these useful insects. In California the destruction 

 of ladybird beetles is perhaps a greater crime than it would be in 

 almost any other section of the country, for here the bark scales and 

 plant -lice upon which these beetles feed are very destructive, and 

 every device for their extermination has been employed, even to 

 importing several foreign species of these predatory beetles. 



Time was when the devastation of the San Jose scale and several 

 other species of scale insects threatened the fruit industry of Cali- 

 fornia, and there can be no reasonable doubt that the coccinellid 

 beetles of both the imported and native species were largely instru- 

 mental in checking the spread of these pests. It is to be remarked 

 that these beetles are wonderfully abundant in California, probably 

 more so than any other family. The writer found them upon corn, 

 weeds, grass, and bushes, often where apparently there was none 

 of their natural food. In mitigation of the vireos' habit of eating 

 ladybirds all that can be said is that Avhere there is such a super- 

 abundance of the insects the damage is minimized. 



The writer is glad to be able to add that besides the coccinellids, 

 vireos eat many harmful insects, among wdiich are the black olive 



