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



White-breasted Nuthatch, Weed and Dearborn say : " Professor 

 King examined the stomach contents of twenty-five Wisconsin 

 specimens, and found that fourteen of them had eaten beetles, in- 

 cluding elaters and longicorns, while others contained ants, cater- 

 pillars, and beetle grubs, a spider, and a chrysalis, a few small 

 toadstools, some acorns, and a little corn. Four Illinois specimens 

 had eaten beetles of various kinds, some of them being lady- 

 beetles. 



" The food of this species in winter and spring was made the 

 subject of a special study by Professor E. D. Sanderson. * Dur- 

 ing the winter the larger proportion ' of the food was composed 

 of seeds, which gradually decreased as insect life became more 

 abundant.' Seeds of Indian corn, ragweed, and wild sunflowers 

 were recognized ; the insects were largely in egg or larval stages. 

 In spring nearly eighty per cent of the food consisted of insects, 

 chiefly adults. No traces of acorns were found in the stomachs 

 examined. From these studies Professor Sanderson reaches the 

 conclusion that this species is ' either absolutely neutral or of 

 comparatively small economic importance ' — a conclusion which, 

 it seems to us, is by no means warranted by his results. During 

 the spring, he writes, * Hymenoptera were found in considerable 

 numbers, all being beneficial.' Probably it is on this account that 

 the usefulness of the birds is doubted. But we believe that in- 

 vestigators err in saying that all parasitic insects are beneficial." 

 (Weed and Dearborn, " Birds in their Relation to Man.") 



The feeding habits of the Red-breasted Nuthatch are similar. 



TITMICE. 



Paridce. 



Taking up the work where the Creepers and Nuthatches have 

 left it, carrying their search for insects and their eggs to the tips 

 of the branches and the hanging leaves, and often intruding on 

 the ground more properly belonging to the others, common and 

 remaining with us all the year, the Chickadee {Par us atricapillus 

 atricapillus) is probably the most useful bird we possess. " In 

 a cankerworm-infested orchard sixty-one per cent of the food 

 of two Chickadees consisted of these caterpillars, while injurious 

 beetles constituted the remainder. 



