DICKCISSEL 177 



by Judd (1900, 1901) and observations by others are also included. 

 The birds obtained in Illinois for stomach examinations were collected 

 chiefly in August, when insects and seeds form the most important 

 part of the food of the dickcissel. These stomachs contained 68 

 percent vegetable matter and 32 percent animal food. Examinations 

 by the U.S. Biological Survey (Judd, 1901) show that stomachs of 

 152 dickcissels collected from May to August, chiefly in Kansas, 

 some from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Texas, contained 70 percent 

 animal and 30 percent vegetable matter, a ratio almost the reverse 

 of that of my birds. AU but four of the Illinois stomachs were from 

 young of the year, which may explain their higher content of vegetable 

 matter. Young inexperienced birds are not so adept as their parents 

 at finding and capturing insects and naturally depend on food that is 

 more easily obtainable. Seeds, the chief and practically only vege- 

 table matter eaten, were present everywhere in limitless quantities 

 during August, when the birds were collected. 



About 53 percent of the vegetable matter, or 36 percent of the entire 

 contents of the stomachs, was seeds of weeds that are of no value to 

 man, many of them a nuisance to agriculture. Of the nine species of 

 weeds represented, two species, Chaetochloa glauca and Chaetochloa 

 viridis, made up 33 percent of the entire stomach contents. Syn- 

 therisma sanginuale was represented by 1.6 percent, three species of 

 Polygonum (convolvulus, persicaria and aviculare) 0.6 percent, and seeds 

 of Stellaria media and sedge grasses were present in small numbers. 



Unfortunately for the good reputation of the dickcissel, grain 

 amounted to 32 percent of the entire contents, divided between wheat 

 (6.5 percent) and oats (25.5 percent). No grain was found in the 

 stomachs of adult birds. Judd's (1901) examinations of dickcissel 

 stomachs collected during August showed more than a tenth of the 

 food to be millet. He states that millet, pigeon grass, and closely 

 related species formed almost the whole of the vegetable food. 



The animal matter consists of insects with traces of spiders and 

 phalangids. The large number of Orthoptera found in the stomachs 

 (28 percent), and the fact that at least traces of grasshoppers were 

 found in all stomachs except one, uphold the dickcissePs reputa- 

 tion as a destroyer of these noxious insects. The Orthoptera found 

 all belong to two families: Acrididae 26 percent, and Locustidae 

 present as 2 percent of the entire contents. Species of Melanojpus 

 were the commonest grasshoppers found in the stomachs. A cricket, 

 Nemohius jasciatus, was taken from the beak of an adult bird. 



Lepidoptera, chiefly caterpillars, amounted to 3 percent; Coleoptera, 

 though represented by traces of eight or more species, were in amounts 

 (0.2 percent) too small to be of importance. There were traces of two 

 flies, two species of ants and an ichneumon fly, all in small quantities. 



