130 



INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. 



opportunities for housekeeping. An examination of two hundred 

 and five stomachs showed that seventy-six per cent of the food con- 

 sisted of insects and their allies, while twenty-four per cent is made 

 up of vegetable substances. Beetles constitute twenty-eight per cent 

 of the whole food, grasshoppers twenty-two, caterpillars eleven, and 

 various insects, including spiders, comprise the remainder of diet. 

 All these insects are more or less harmful, except a few predaceous 

 beetles, which amount to eight per cent. Prof. S. A. Forbes of 

 Illinois examined 108 specimens secured in every month except No- 

 vember and January, and results of these examinations prove that 

 although the bluebird eats some insects which are beneficial, and 

 occasionally takes a raspberry or gooseberry, it consumes such an 

 immense number of injurious insects, cutworms and other insects, 

 such as army worms, moths, grasshoppers and crickets, that it is 

 undoubtedly a beneficial bird. Nestlings of the bluebird, like the 

 young of almost all of our common birds, are fed an enormous quan- 

 tity of insects. 



PHOEBE. 



Fig. 125. — Phoebe. From Biological Survey U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



