SOME NOTES ON NEBRASKA BIRDS. 



129 



"West to the Rocky mountains" (Goss); Beatrice, De Witt— breeding (A. S. 

 Pearse); Omaha — nesting (L. Skow); Peru, breeds occasionally (G. A. Cole- 

 man); Cherry county — breeds (J. M. Bates); Gage county— breeds (F. A. 

 Colby); "common summer resident, dates same as the preceding species" (I. 

 S. Trostler); Lincoln, March 25, 28 (D. A. Haggard). 



Mr. Beal, in his summary of the food-habit study of the Crow- 

 blackbirds, says of them: "From the foregoing results it appears that 

 if the mineral element be rejected as not properly forming a part of 

 the diet, the food of the Crow-blackbird for the whole year consists 

 of animal and vegetable matter in nearly equal proportions. Of the 



Fig. 42.— Crow-Blackbird. 



animal component twenty-three twenty-fourths are insects, and of the 

 insects five-sixths are noxious species. The charge that the blackbird 

 is a habitual robber of other bird's nests seems to be disproved by the 

 stomach examinations." 



**Of the vegetable food it has been found that corn constitutes half 

 and other grain one-fourth. Oats are seldom eaten except in April and 

 August, and wheat in July and August. Fruit is eaten in such mod- 

 erate quantities that it has no economic inportance, particularly in 

 viewof the fact that so little belongs to cultivated varieties." * * * 



