264 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



nests of decaying vegetation in lakes or ponds. Their food 

 habits are such that they are of little economic importance. 

 The food of the Loons is almost entirely small fish, while the 

 Grebes vary this diet with aquatic insects, tadpoles, lizards, 

 grass, locusts, and grasshoppers. 



The Auks are found only as stragglers in our waters, and 

 the small fish and crustaceans they consume are of no value. 



JAEGERS and AIAX-O'-WAR BIRDS. 

 Stercorariidce and Fregatidcr. 



Wanderers on our shores, the Jaegers find the terns on 

 which they largely depend for food so rare that they do not 

 stay long with us. Their ordinar}^ method of procuring food 

 is to chase a tern or small gull until the latter drops the fish 

 it has in its bill or disgorges what it has swallowed. This 

 the robber seizes before it reaches the water; then searches 

 for a fresh victim. When forced to forage for themselves, 

 they live on fish, frogs, crawfish, and even grasshoppers. 



The Man-o'-War Bird (Fregata aquila) has the habits of 

 the Jaegers, but is only accidental in our state. 



GULLS and TERNS. 



Larid<E. 



All is flesh that a Gull can find to eat as long as it is not 

 vegetable. Their usual food with us is fish, but the manner 

 the Herring Gulls {Lanis argentatus) collect at the mouths of 

 the sewers of cities shows that other matter is not objection- 

 able. They are the scavengers of the waters, feeding on all ani- 

 mal matter they can find, whether alive or dead. " Other times 

 other manners " ; the head of a Ptarmigan was found in the 

 throat of a Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus) shot by the 

 author in Alaska, and Mr. E. T. Judd took a Yellow Warbler 

 from the stomach of a Ring-billed Gull {Larus delazvarensis) 

 in North Dakota. In that state and in many parts of the 

 West flocks of Franklin's Gulls {Larus frankliiii) following the 

 plow, and alighting on the freshly turned sod in search of 

 worms and grubs, are a common sight. Grasshoppers and 

 locusts are also a welcome ad^dition to the food of many 



