42 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
only a trace, and the increase of gravel and sand in the winter food is no 
doubt necessary in grinding up the largely increased percentage of seeds. 
Mr. F. E. L. Beal of the Department has identified, among the 
various fragments found in the stomachs of the summer specimens 
from Sable Island, the following: Beetles ard their larve, represented by 
scarabeids (Aphodius fimentarius identified) , carabids, elaterids, cicindelids, 
and weevils ; caterpillars, as well as pup and pupa-cases ; grasshoppers ; ants 
(including one pupa), and other hymenoptera ; hemiptera; diptera ; spiders 
(also eggs and cocoons) ; snails; seeds, herbage, and rubbish, unrecogniz- 
able, except seeds or granules of Myrica cerifera, Cornus canadensis, Rumex 
acetosella, and Vaccinium sp.?; bits of shell and shells of bivalve molluscs 
probably swallowed with the sand and gravel. 
The winter diet appears to consist largely of the seeds and hulls of an 
unrecognizable grass, together with several other unknown seeds, as well 
as Chenopodium sp.?, Eragrostis sp.?, Polygonum articulatum and rye. 
The animal food in winter consists of beetles, among them scarabzids 
(represented by Aphodius inquinatus and Aphodius fimentarius (probably)), 
and weevils; caterpillars and their cocoons; hymenoptera (including some 
ants) ; diptera ; spiders’ cocoons; snails. The rest of the stomach contents in 
winter is made up of the usual sand and gravel which sometimes is mingled 
with cinders or slag and bits of coal. 
