Birds of Pennsylvania. 181 



soon consume nine-tenths of all the productions of his labor, and 

 desolate the country with the miseries of famine." 



In concluding, attention is called to several series of stomach ex- 

 aminations, made at different periods' during the past five years, and 

 from such work the reader can draw his own conclusions. 



March — Twenty-nine examined. They showed chiefly insects and 

 seed ; in five corn was present, and in four wheat and oats were found. 

 All of these grains, however, were in connection with an excess of in- 

 sect food. 



April — Thirty-three examined. They revealed chiefly insects, with 

 but a small amount of vegetable matter. 



May — Eighty-two examined. Almost entirely insects, cut-worms 

 being esijecially frequent. 



June — Forty-three examined. Showed generally insects, cut worms 

 in abundance ; fruits and berries present, but to very small extent. 



July — Twenty-four examined. Showed mainly insects; berries 

 present in limited amount. 



August — Twenty-three examined. Showed chiefly insects, berries, 

 and corn. 



September — Eighteen examined. Showed insects, berries, corn and 

 seeds, 



October — During this month (1882), the writer made repeated 

 visits to roosting-resorts, where these birds were collected in great 

 number, and shot three hundred and seventy-eight, which were ex- 

 amined. Of this number the following is the result of examinations, 

 in detail, of one hundred and eleven stomachs : 



Thirty, corn and coleoptera (beetles); twenty-seven, corn only; 

 fifteen, orthoptera (grasshoppers) ; eleven, corn and seeds; eleven, 

 corn and orthoptera; seven, coleoptera; three, coleoptera and orthop- 

 tera; three, wheat and coleoptera; two, wheat and corn ; one, wheat ; 

 one, diptera. 



The remaining two hundred and sixty-seven birds were taken from 

 the 10th to the 31st of the month, and their food was found to consist 

 almost entirely of corn. 



These examinations show that late in the fall, when insect food is 

 scarce, corn is especially preyed upon by these birds, but during the 

 previous periods of their residence with us, insects form a large por- 

 tion of their diet. 



In the West Chester (Pa.) Daily News^ June 15, 1880, the follow- 

 ing mention of the Crow Blackbird was made on the authority of 

 David Euen, Esq., of Phoenixville, Pa. : "A day or two since, while 

 Edward Entwisle and another resident (David Euen) of Phoenixville 

 were walking along French creek in that town, they saw a common 

 Crow Blackbird fly to the water's edge and take therefrom a minnow. 



