256 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



been known to destroy entirely local infestations of orchard tent caterpillars 

 (Malacosoma americana) . 



Beetles, ants, parasitic wasps, bugs, grasshoppers, spiders, and snails are the 

 principal additional components of the Hangnest's animal food. Among forms 

 injurious to woodlands that are known to be preyed upon by the bird are tree 

 hoppers, lace bugs, scale insects, plant lice, leaf chafers, junebugs, nut weevils, 

 adults of flat-headed and round-headed wood borers, leaf beetles including the 

 locust leaf miner, click beetles, oak weevil (Eupsalis minula), and sawfly larvae. 



The wild fruits eaten by the Baltimore Oriole are mostly June berries, mul- 

 berries, and blackberries. A few vegetable galls also are consumed. 



The Oriole does some damage to cultivated peas and small fruits, but has such 

 praiseworthy food habits in general that it certainly is the best policy to take 

 special measures to prevent access to the peas and fruits, rather than to get legal 

 permission to destroy the birds. 



Bendire (1895) eulogizes the bird's feeding habits even more en- 

 thusiastically: "Aside from its showy plumage, its sprightly and 

 pleasing ways, its familiarity with man, and the immense amount of 

 good it does by the destruction of many noxious insects and their 

 larvae, including hairless caterpillars, spiders, cocoons, etc., it nat- 

 urally and deservedly endears itself to every true lover of the beautiful 

 in nature, and only a short-sighted churl or an ignorant fool would 

 begrudge one the few green peas and berries it may help itself to 

 while in season. It fully earns all it takes, and more too, and es- 

 pecially deserves the fullest protection of every agriculturist." 



Additional items in the bird's diet are mentioned by Ellison A. 

 Smyth, Jr. (1912), who says: "They frequent the potato patches 

 with the fledged young and feed freely on potato beetles"; and A. D. 

 Du Bois (MS.) reports seeing the bird "in a sycamore tree, picking to 

 pieces one of the seed balls — holding it against a branchlet with his 

 foot and apparently eating the seeds." William Youngworth (1931) 

 notes an "unusual food"; he says: "While looking from a window 

 on July 23, 1930, the writer saw three immature Baltimore Orioles 

 {Icterus galbula) clinging to the tall hollyhock stocks that were growing 

 along the side of the house. Close watching showed that these birds 

 were pecking into the newly formed pericarps of the hollyhocks and 

 were greedily eating the soft, tender seeds." Samuel Lockwood 

 (1872) gives good evidence that Baltimore orioles decapitated count- 

 less numbers of the stingless male carpenter-bees (Xylocopa Carolina) 

 which were collecting honey in horsechestnut trees, and sucked out 

 the honey. Elisha Slade (1881b) reports that he "detected a Balti- 

 more Oriole eating the leaves [of the American aspen] with evident 

 relish. The bird stood on a branch and picked at and tore off the 

 leaves, eating them with as much apparent enjoyment as our domestic 

 fowls eat the leaves of the plantain." He noted the same performance 

 the following year. In both years the observations were made late 

 in May. 



