TIh' Food of B'iriU. 117 



water-beetles, inchuliiig- Coh/mhetes higuttatus and an un- 

 deterniined species of Hydr()l)ius. The Heniiptera amount- 

 ed to only one per cent, of the food, and all of these were 

 Pentatomidae. The Orthoptera, incliid'ing a few specimens 

 of the white cricket (CEcanthus) and of the common spring- 

 grasshoppers, amounted in all to four per cent, of the food. 

 A single specimen of the young of the walking-stick 

 {Diapheromera femorata) had been eaten by one of the 

 birds. Spiders amounted to three per cent, of the food. 

 The ^Nlyriapoda included several specimens of Lithobius 

 and three species of Polydesmus, viz. : P. serratus, P. 

 virginiensis and P, canadensis. 



It will be seen at once that the striking feature of the 

 food of this bird in May, as compared with that of the rob- 

 in, is the abundance of ants and crane-flies, a characteris- 

 tic which we shall find persistent until the opening of the 

 fruit season revolutionizes the food of both species. 



./ u n e . 



The food of June undergoes so complete a change when 

 the small fruits l)egin to ripen that the record may best be 

 given in two divisions, the first of which agrees closely 

 with that of May, while the second approaches more near- 

 ly to that of July. In the first part of the month, ants 

 were eaten by the nineteen l)irds examined in about the 

 same ratio as in May. Crane-flies appear in the food 

 only in the early days of the month. Among the Coleop- 

 tera the principal peculiarity is the greater importance of 

 the May-beetles (Lachnosterna). A few strawl)erries and 

 cherries were eaten by this bird previous to the fifteenth 

 of the month, but these fruits were not taken in suflicient 

 amount materially to influence the averages. After the 

 seventeenth, however, only one per cent, of the food con- 

 sisted of ants, and only about three per cent, of caterpil- 

 lars. The May-beetles disappear almost entirely, and the 

 other insect elements are reduced to equal insignificance, 

 while the same fruits constitute by far the larger part of 

 the food. These include currants and cherries in about 

 equal parts, and about twice as many raspberries as of botli 

 the others taken together. Treating the food of the month 



