44 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



feed upon them shown by the present tabulation is 85 and the number 

 of specimens taken at a meal ran over 200 in several cases, and up to 

 1,300 in one instance (eared grebe). The Belostomidae or giant water 

 bugs, including the largest of North American Heteroptera, have 

 strong, grasping forelegs and a stout beak which readily pierces the 

 skin of man, making an aching, evidently envenomed wound. Not- 

 withstanding these characteristics they do not escape the birds. Fifty- 

 three species are on our list of captors, ducks, herons, and the like 

 preponderating ; in two cases, both herons, as many as 10 specimens 

 were found in a stomach at one time. The Notonectidae again are 

 sharply biting and exceedingly active under-water bugs ; but the larger 

 types are eaten by no fewer than 44 species of birds, sometimes in 

 considerable number (30-57), while the little crawling and obscure 

 Pica were identified in 60 stomachs of 12 species of birds, in numbers 

 up to 40 in a single instance. The Gerridae, so very active on the 

 water surface, fall a prey to at least 49 kinds of birds, sometimes 

 being taken in considerable numbers (20-40). The Miridae or plant 

 bugs are agile and rapid in their movements and of great variety in 

 form and color, but corresponding with their abundance and wide 

 distribution, we find them preyed upon by 108 species of birds. The 

 Anthocoridae and Cimicidae, both odoriferous families, seem poorly 

 represented in our tables, but from their habits we should hardly 

 expect the latter to be found at all, while most Anthocoridae also live 

 largely hidden lives. We have found Nabidae in the stomachs of 

 52 species of birds, Emesidae in 10, and Reduviidae in 115; these 

 highly predatory forms therefore seem to have bird enemies about in 

 proportion to their abundance. 



There arc only a few species of Pyrrhocoridae in the United States 

 and none of them are abundant ; hence the i8 captures by nine species 

 of birds are perhaps not below proportion ; while the relations of birds 

 to the Lygaeidae shows again that an abundant and diversified group 

 is sure to be frequently taken by a large variety of birds. In this 

 family may be specially mentioned Myodocha scrripcs, a bug with an 

 extraordinarily long neck, for what purpose is unknown ; at any rate 

 it is one of the most bizarre of the group in our area, but it is eaten 

 by more than 20 species of birds and no fewer than 27 specimens have 

 been found in a single stomach (purple martin). The large red and 

 black Lygacns species were taken by 14 species of birds, and the 

 superabundant chinch bug (Blissits Icncopterns), frequently observed 

 in prodigious numbers, by 29. Three species of birds, the bobwhitc, 

 meadowlark, and brown thrasher, had records of a hundred or more 

 chinch bugs at a meal. These facts contrast strongly with the state- 



