318 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



California. The animal portion of the food was 32 percent and the vegetable 68 

 percent. 



Caterpillars and their pupae amounted to 12 percent of the whole food and were 

 eaten every month. They include many of those pests known as cutworms. The 

 cotton-boll worm, or corn-ear worm, was identified in at least 10 stomachs, and 

 in 11 were found pupae of the codling moth. The animal food also included other 

 insects, and spiders, sow bugs, snails, and egg shells. 



The vegetable food may be divided into fruit, grain, and weed seeds. Fruit was 

 eaten in May, June, and July, not a trace appearing in any other month, and was 

 composed of cherries, or what was thought to be such, strawberries, blackberries or 

 raspberries, and fruit pulp or skins not further identified. However, the amount, 

 a little more than 4 percent for the year, was too small to make a bad showing, and 

 if the bird does no greater harm than is involved in its fruit eating it is well worth 

 protecting. Grain amounts to 54 percent of the yearly food and forms a consider- 

 able percentage in each month; oats are the favorite and were the sole contents 

 of 14 stomachs, and wheat of 2, but no stomach was complete^ filled with any 

 other grain. Weed seeds, eaten in every month to the extent of 9 percent of the 

 food, were found in rather small quantities and irregularly, and appear to have 

 been merely a makeshift. 



Stomachs of nestlings, varying in age from 24 hours to some that were nearly 

 fledged, were found to contain 89 percent animal to 1 1 'percent vegetable matter. 

 The largest items in the former were caterpillars, grasshoppers, and spiders. In 

 the latter the largest items were fruit, probably cherries; grain, mostly oats; and 

 rubbish. 



The results of an investigation of the food habits of the redwing 

 (Agelaius phoeniceus) and Brewer's blackbird in California has been 

 presented by Soriano (1931). The stomach contents of 285 Brewer's 

 blackbirds, taken in all the months of the year and from 15 counties in 

 various sections of the State, were examined. The animal food 

 taken included Coleoptera (represented by at least 13 families), Dip- 

 tera, Hemiptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, 

 Chilopoda, and Arachnida. Cereals, mainly wheat, were the vegetable 

 foods most taken. Other seeds found included Amaranthus, Am- 

 sinckia, Stellaria, Sorghum, Erodium, Polygonum, and Ribes. "In 

 the months when insects and vegetable food, especially cereal in the 

 harvest season, are both abundant," writes Soriano, "vegetable food 

 is taken less, showing that these birds are primarily more insec- 

 tivorous in food habits than vegetarian. Most of the insects taken 

 belong to the destructive families of insects from the point of view of 

 the farmer and fruit grower. Very few beneficial insects are taken. 

 The destruction of these harmful insects means a great help to the 

 farmers and growers in particular, and to consumers in general." 

 Most of the cereal taken is not "from newly planted seeds, for the 

 birds take sown seeds uncovered, as also grain from pastures, barn- 

 yards, orchards and grain fields. Economically this cereal is not 

 important and it can be considered waste grain." The rest of the 

 vegetable food is almost all weed seeds. "Economically, in the widest 

 human interests," concludes Soriano, the redwing and the Brewer's 



