TNBECT FOOD OF CARDINAL, 



19 



Fig. 12. — A bill bug (Spheno- 

 phorus). (From Forbes, Illi- 

 nois Experiment Station.) 



voiired by 13 cardinals. Two species (Sphe/wphorus cariosus and 



S. roTnjjressirostris) were identified. 



Lamellicorn or scarabteid beetles are 



next in importance to weevils in the beetle 



diet of the cardinal. Thev were eaten bv 



77 birds and compose 2.56 percent of the 



annual food. Many of them feed on ex- 



crementitioiis matter and are of neutral 



economic sio^nificance : but few of these are 



consumed by the bird. Those secured in- 

 clude the common road-frequenting dung 



beetles, which were captured by 6 cardi- 

 nals, and the large resplendant scavenger 



Phanwus camifex. 



Other species in this family, however, 



are not so harmless as the above. The 



spotted vine-chafer {Pelidnota punctata)^ 



which is an important grape pest in the 



eastern United States, the two-spotted 



Anomala, which also devours the foliage 



of the grape, and the cetonias {Euphoria 



inda, fig. 15 ; E. fulgida, et al.), which feed 



upon all sorts of flowers and sometimes on young Indian corn, are all 



accepted as food by the cardinal. The southern June beetle or figeater 



{AUorhina nitida, fig. 

 13), which causes con- 

 siderable damage in 

 Florida and neighbor- 

 ing States, was found in 

 a few stomachs; but 

 since the cardinal 

 evinces a strong prefer- 

 ence for large insects 

 and abounds in this 

 beetle's favorite home, 

 many of them, no doubt, 

 are devoured. Of great- 

 est interest in this fam- 

 ily are the ro.se-chafers 

 ( M aci'odactyluH h i/hspi- 



Fio. IS. — Fipreator {AUorhiiui nilida). (From Howard, ho.s/'s fi^r 14) Thcse bee- ' 

 liiircau of lOntoniology.) 'to' •/ 



I ties are so abundant at 

 times, says Prof. J. 15. Smith, that they " ruin not only vineyards, 

 but orchards and gardens, eating ovci-y kind of fruit and flower; 



