16 



FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 



several garden and field crops. Measuring worms were eaten by 2 



cardinals, the ze- 

 bra caterpillar 

 (fig. 10) of the 

 cabbage by 1, 

 while 2 secured 

 chrysalides of the 

 notorious codling 

 moth. It thus ap- 

 pears that the 

 lepidopterous food 

 of this grosbeak 

 contains a number 

 of serious pests, 

 and the bird ac- 

 complishes much 

 good by destroy- 

 ing them. 



A somewhat 

 larger number of 

 cardinals than ate 

 caterpillars preyed 

 upon grasshop- 

 pers, and these in- 

 sects form a corre- 

 spondingly larger 

 proportion of the 

 food, namely 6.43 

 percent. Crickets and long and short horned locusts were eaten and 

 a decided taste for the eggs of katydids is 

 shown, they 1)eing consumed by 21 red- 

 birds. Among the short -horned grasshop- 

 pers the small shield-back grouse locusts 

 were taken, and also the lesser migratory 

 locusts {Melanoplus atlanis, fig. 39), 

 which during the invasions of the Rocky 

 Mountain grasshopper was second only 

 in importance to that formidable insect. 

 The cardinal did its share in repelling 

 the locust hosts in the seventies, Mr. 

 Aughey, of Nebraska, finding more than 

 20 locusts per bird during his examina- 

 tions. It is certain that the redbird's aid 

 in restricting the less conspicuous pests 

 of the jDresent day is no less valuable. 



Other insects bearing the name " locusts, 



Fig. 8. — BoUworm or corn-ear worm (Heliothis obsoleta) 

 (From Quaintance, Bureau of Entomology.) 



C't- 



[fiG. 9. — Cotton cutworm {Proilenia 

 ornithoyalH). (From Chittenden, 

 Bureau of Entomology.) 



but not at all closely 



