34 FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 



during the last twenty years the bird is known to have increased, 

 and where once rare it is now common. In western Pennsylvania 

 rosebreasts are said to be as common as song sparrows, and E. A. 

 Preble, of the Biological Survey, found them in migration one of the 

 commonest birds along the Athabaska River, near the northern limit 

 of their distribution. 



The rosebreast ranges farther north than any other of the group 

 of grosbeaks here treated. Breeding from tlie latitude of St. Louis 

 and northeastern Kansas and in the Alleghenies from southern Ten- 

 nessee, it occurs as far north as Newfoundland and Quebec in the east 

 and in the west extends through the Dakotas and lower Saskatche- 

 wan to Peace Eiver Landing, Alberta, and the vicinity of Fort 

 Smith, Mackenzie — the latter locality only 6° from the Arctic Circle. 

 In winter the species is found from southern Mexico to below the 

 Equator in Ecuador. 



ECONOMIC RELATIONS. 



Much interest attaches to the present species because of its well- 

 known fondness for the Colorado potato beetle. More than 35 

 printed articles of greater or less length have been devoted to the 

 bird because of this habit, and brief reports upon it appear in four 

 previous publications of the Biological Survey.** 



One hundred and seventy-six stomachs of the rosebreasted gros- 

 beak are available for present examination, and these were obtained 

 in the seven months from April to November (excepting October), 

 from 17 States and the District of Columbia, besides Nova Scotia, 

 Ontario, and Northwest Territory. 



A detailed inventory of the contents of these stomachs having been 

 made and the results tabulated, it was foiuid that the bird consumes 

 an average of 52 percent of animal matter and 48 percent of vege- 

 table per month during its stay in the summer home. The maximum 

 amount (74.25 percent) of animal food is taken in June, the nesting 

 month. Remarkable features of the food habits are the apparent dis- 

 inclination for grasshoppers and the strong preference for wild fruits. 



Vegetable Food. 



The vegetable part of the diet is composed of the following ele- 

 uients: Weed seed, 15.74 percent; grain, 5.09 percent; garden peas, 

 l.o7 percent; Avild fruit, 19.3 percent, and other vegetable matter, 

 including a small quantity of cultivated fruit, besides buds, flowers 

 of trees, etc., 6.5 percent. 



"BaiTows, W. B., Rep. Commr. Agr. (1888), 1889, pp. 535-536; Merrinm. C. 

 Hart, Kep. Coiinur. Agr., 1889, p. 369; Beul, F. E. L., Farmers' Bull. 54, 1897, pp. 

 28-30 ; Beal, F. E L., Farmers' Bull. 54, rev. ed., 1904, pp. 34-35. 



