RPE TS Sie et ae Lane, et ner en a eee ee . 
SOR Tae We 0 ee oe ne % 
gf oo ae at sire: i> 3 i *. 
34 BRIGHT FEATHERS. 
beak (//ydemeles ludoviciana) from seizing it at once. Knowing the 
potato beetle to be poisonous, at least to the genus Homo, 1 did not care 
to try experiments with the tame Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, my sweet- 
est songster in the aviary. I had often before noticed, that the Cardi- 
nal Grosbeak had a fondness for beetles, and naturally supposed that he 
was better qualified to judge of the wholesomeness of the food offered.” 
“ The latter bird watched the beetle very attentively as it crept over 
the floor, but seemed to be in no hurry to capture it as he would other 
beetles. Finally he took hold of and crushed it between his mandi- 
bles. He tried to swallow it, but not finding the taste very appetiz- 
ing, he gladly yielded up the unsavory morsel to the repeated snatch- 
ings of the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. After crushing it into a shapeless 
mass, which occupied but a few seconds, he carefully stowed it away. 
I thought he seemed not to enjoy the taste very much, as he gravely 
. / shook his handsome head as if in a doubtful mood. Wiping off his 
bill, he immediately afterwards proceeded to eat a quantity of cultivated 
portulaca that I offered as a precautionary measure. Portulaca stems 
; and leaves contain much mucilage, which I thought would be an anti- 
dote to the possible acrid quality of the juice of Doryvphora decem-lineata. 
The usual result of poisoning from handling these crushed beetles, as 
well as from inhaling the fumes arising from vessels in which 2. decem- 
fineata have been scalded, has been likened to serpent and scorpion- 
poisoning. | Where death followed, the blood would become disorgan- 
ized the same as from septemia. However, in the case of the birds 
no evil effects were noticed. — In mankind, idiosyncrasy favors the ab. 
sorption of the volatile doryphora poison.” 
% % % oo a % % % % % oo * 
“RICHARD E. KUNZE, New York. 
—American Naturalist, Vol. XIV., pp. 521-522. 
