52 



FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 



browiitail, the hairs of which so irritate human flesh, also is eagerly- 

 eaten, and other caterpillars clothed with spines were found in the 

 stomachs examined. In several gizzards, indeed, a mass of branching- 

 caterpillar spines was all that remained to show the nature of the 



Fig. 29. — Orchard tont-caterpillai 



(MalacoHiiiiiii (imcricano). 

 Entomology. ) 



(From Itiley, lUireaii of 



food. It is evident that neither hairs nor even pricking, stinging 

 •opines are adequate to protect a caterpillar from a hungry grosbeak. 

 Besides Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera, which have 

 been discussed in the order named, but one group of insects of impor- 

 tance in the dietary of 

 the rosebreast remains, 

 that of true bugs 

 ( Hemiptera ) , includ- 

 ing the stink bugs, 

 tree hoppers, plant lice, 

 and scale insects. From 

 this miscellaneous as- 

 semblage the grosbeak 



Fig. 30. — Gipsy moth caterpillar (I'ortlictria (lisi)ar). selects 3.89 per Cent of 

 (From Bureau of Entomology,) .. <» i i , 



its food, and two- 

 thirds of this amount consists of the minute pests known as scale 

 insects. From an economic standpoint also the latter are of great- 

 est importance, as they ranlc among the Avorst enemies of agriculture 

 in the United States. Orchards, both of the deciduous and citrus 



