42 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



only a trace, and the increase of gravel and sand in the winter food is no 

 doubt necessary in grinding up the largely increased percentage of seeds. 



Mr. F. E. L. Beal of the Department has identified, among the 

 various fragments found in tlie stomachs of tlie summer specimens 

 iVom Sable Island, the following : Beetles and their larvte, represented by 

 scarabaeids {AphodiusJimcntarius\(\ex\\.\fied), carabids, elaterids, cicindelids, 

 and weevils ; caterpillars, as well as pupae and pupa-cases ; grasshoppers ; ants 

 (including one pupa), and other hymenoptera ; hemiptera ; diptera ; spiders 

 (also eggs and cocoons) ; snails ; seeds, herbage, and rubbish, unrecogniz- 

 able, except seeds or granules oiMyrica cerifcra, Cornus canadensis, Rtimcx 

 acetosella, and Vaccinium sp. ? ; bits of shell and shells of bivalve molluscs 

 probably swallowed with the sand and gravel. 



The winter diet appears to consist largely of the seeds and hulls of an 

 unrecognizable grass, together with several other unknown seeds, as well 

 as Ckcnopodium s\>.'i, JiragTosi/s sp.?, Polygonum articulatum and rye. 

 The animal food in winter consists of beetles, among them scarabceids 

 (represented hy Aphodius inquinatus ^Vi6. Aphodixis jimentarins (probably)), 

 and weevils ; caterpillars and their cocoons ; h3'menoptera (including some 

 ants) ; diptera ; spiders' cocoons ; snails. The rest of the stomach contents in 

 winter is made up of the usual sand and gravel which sometimes is mingled 

 with cinders or slag and bits of coal. 



