EASTERN BLUEBIRD 247 



large quantities of harmful insects. In his analysis of 855 stomachs, 

 taken in every month in the year, Professor Beal (1915a) found that 

 the food consisted of 68 percent animal and 32 percent vegetable 

 matter. He says: "Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids) 

 furnish the largest item of animal food, amounting to a good percent- 

 age in every month, and in August and September aggregating 52.68 

 and 53.47 percent, respectively. The month of least consumption is 

 January, when they amount to 5.98 percent, and the average for the 

 whole year is 22.01 percent. * * * Beetles constitute the second 

 largest item of animal food, and for the year average 20.92 percent 

 of the diet. Of these, 9.61 percent are useful species, mostly preda- 

 ceous ground beetles (Carabidae). Few birds exceed this record of 

 destruction of useful beetles. * * * This destruction of useful 

 beetles has been considered by some writers a blot upon the fair name 

 of the bluebird." Various other beetles of a more or less harmful 

 nature, such as May-beetles, dung beetles, weevils and others, are 

 eaten in lesser amounts. 



Ants amount to 3.48 percent, and other Hymenoptera (wasps and 

 bees) to only 1.62 percent of the bluebird's food. Only one worker 

 honey bee was found in one stomach. Hemiptera (bugs) average 2.75 

 percent for the year; stink bugs predominated, and remains of chinch 

 bugs were found in one stomach. Lepidoptera, in the form of cater- 

 pillars and a few moths, form an important and regular article of food, 

 averaging 10.48 percent for the year, the third largest item of animal 

 food. Other insects, spiders, myriapods, sowbugs, snails, and angle- 

 worms, with a few bones of lizards and tree frogs, made up the re- 

 mainder of the animal food. 



Beal's analysis showed that "the vegetable portion of the eastern 

 bluebird's food is largely fruit and mostly of wild species. Practically 

 all of the domestic fruit taken was in June and July. Cherries and 

 raspberries or blackberries were the only fruits really identified, though 

 some pulp may have been of cultivated fruit. The most important 

 vegetable food of the bluebird is wild fruit. The maximum quantity 

 is eaten in December, when it amounts to 57.64 percent. January 

 comes next, but after that month the amount decreases rather 

 abruptly to zero in May. * * * The average for the year is 

 21.85 percent. At least 38 species of wild fruits were identified and 

 probably more were present but not recognizable." Seeds are eaten 

 sparingly, and grain was found in only two stomachs. Miscellaneous 

 matter includes seeds of sumac, both the harmless and the poisonous 

 kinds, poison-ivy and bayberry, amounting to 7.84 percent for the 

 year. Beal includes long lists of insects and vegetable matter eaten. 



Bluebirds obtain their food in the air, in the trees, and on the 



