82 BIRD FRIENDS 



ern sections of the country where these diseases are 

 not found, mosquitoes are a great pest and prevent 

 one from enjoying outdoors at the best time of the 

 year. The food habits of birds may be studied with 

 special interest in this connection to see to what ex- 

 tent they feed on flies and mosquitoes. 



The reports of the Bureau of Biological Survey 

 show that there are a number of birds known to eat 

 these insects. Nine species of shore-birds are known 

 to feed on the wigglers of mosquitoes. In a killdeer's 

 stomach, hundreds of larvae of the salt-marsh mos- 

 quito have been found. Fifty-three per cent of the 

 food of twenty-eight northern phalaropes from one 

 locality consisted of mosquito larva;. 



The following land-birds are known to feed on the 

 adult mosquito: nighthawk, purple martin, yellow- 

 throated vireo, whip-poor-will, chimney swift, wood 

 pewee, phoebe, kingbird, bank swallow, cliff swallow, 

 tree swallow, barn swallow, violet-green swallow, 

 wren-tit, and summer warbler. Five hundred mos- 

 quitoes are said to have been found in the stomach 

 of a single nighthawk. Among the species eaten by 

 this bird is the kind that carries malaria, so that, 

 as we watch a nighthawk soaring around at twilight, 

 we may believe it quite possible that it has been the 

 means of saving some human life by destroying 

 malaria-laden mosquitoes which might otherwise 

 have bitten and infected a human being, thus caus- 

 ing sickness or death. 



