810 



JOURNAL OP ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 

 ESTIMATE OF THE AMOUNT EATEN IN A YEAR 



[Vol. 3 



By an adult ben 



Insects 



Weeds 



By an adult cock 



Weeds. 



January — 

 February.- • 



March 



April 



May 



June 



July ........ 



August 



September. 



October 



November.. 

 December.. 



90 g. 

 372 

 600 

 620 

 620 

 450 

 372 

 186 



3310 g. 



465 g. 



420 



465 



450 



372 



300 



310 



310 



300 



372 



411 



465 



90 g. 

 372 

 372 

 372 

 372 

 372 

 372 

 186 



4640 g. 



2508 g. 



465 g. 



420 

 465 

 450 

 372 

 372 

 372 

 372 

 372 

 372 

 411 

 465 



4908 g. 



For the cock in May, June, July, August, September, October and 

 half of November, and for the hen in May, October and half of No- 

 vember the estimate is that found by 8 tests in October and November 

 — 12 g. of each. In June, July and August when the hen is laying, 

 20 g. of insects seems a safe average. In 2 tests in July a hen ate 24 

 g. and 24.6 g. respectively. 



For a young bird, if we substitute the figures for his first six weeks 

 for six weeks of July and August in the adult cock's estimate, the 

 result, is 2,377 g. of insects and 4,495 g. of weed seeds. 

 ','"An averag.e of 45 tests gave 22.5 insects to a gram. The highest 

 is 60 in July, the lowest 2 in November. This average is too low for 

 the smallest insects that the birds eat, such as plant lice, were not 

 weighed ; besides for the tests large insects were often caught in pref- 

 erence to smaller ones for convenience sake. 



One gram of 23 different kinds of seeds were counted ; the average 

 was 1,096. 



