126 BIRDS IX THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



of these birds are not noticed. Raspberries, elder-berries, 

 myrtle-berries, mulberries, and various other wild fruits are 

 also eaten largely by the cedar-birds. 



In the orchard infested by canker-worms treated of in 

 Chapter VI., Professor Forbes shot seven specimens out of 

 a flock of thirty cedar-birds. The stomachs of all these 

 were full of the worms, averaging one hundred to each, so 

 that it was estimated that this flock would destroy ninety 

 thousand of the pests if they stayed in the orchard a month. 

 Among other insects which are known to be eaten by this 

 species may be mentioned beetles, crickets, crane-flies, lace- 

 wing flies, and ichneumon-flies. At the Department of 

 Agriculture the food-contents of one hundred and fifty-two 

 stomachs of this species have been examined, the results 

 showing that seventy-four per cent, of the food consisted of 

 wild fruits, thirteen per cent, of cultivated fruits, only five 

 per cent, of this being cherries. The remaining food con- 

 sisted of insects, — grasshoppers, bugs, bark-lice, and beetles 

 (among the latter the elm-leaf beetle) being the principal 

 items of the insect bill of fare. 



An exceedingly interesting account of the nesting habits of 

 the cedar-bird has been given by Herrick. " The food con- 

 sisted of choke-cherries and red bird-cherries, varied with 

 raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, together with in- 

 sects, which during the last days of life at the nest constituted 

 about one-quarter of the fare." Our own observations show 

 very similar feeding habits. In one case nestling birds were 

 found by another observer to have been fed largely upon the 

 little dung-beetles of the genus Aphodius. 



THE SWALLOWS. 



Few families of birds are more highly insectivorous than 

 that of the swallows (ffirundinidae). Members of this group 

 have long, pointed wings, small feet, and a short, broad, 

 deeply cleft bill, well adapted to catching insects in the air. 



