124 The Food of Bhds. 



At the bottom of the tal)le of food given on page 127 a 

 set of percentages will be seen similar to those previously 

 mentioned in the discussion of the food of the robin. The 

 beneficial elements eaten by this bird, including fruits 

 and the carnivorous insects, run as follows, from May to 

 September : — 18, 53, 75, 45 and 19, the average for the sea- 

 son being forty-one per cent. The corresponding ratios of 

 injurious elements are 29, 21, 7, 16, and 4, giving a general 

 average of 15 per cent, for the year. Referring to the ver- 

 tical column of figures at the right of the table we find the 

 injurious insects of this bird's food as follows : saw-flies 

 one per cent., Lepidoptera seven, leaf-chafers two, snout- 

 beetles one, plant-beetles one, chinch-bugs one and Orthop- 

 tera three ; while the beneficial insects in the same col- 

 umn are — predaceous beetles five, predaceous Hemiptera 

 one, and Arachnida two. A careful comparison of these 

 elements with each other will probably convince the in- 

 telligent reader that these insect averages balance each 

 other fairly well, and that the injury done in the fruit- 

 garden by these birds remains without compensation un- 

 less we shall find it in the food of the yonng. This state- 

 ment is made upon the hypothesis that ants are to be re- 

 garded as neutral insects ; and the entire question of the 

 immediate value of this species, aside from the still un- 

 settled question of the food of the young, may be reduced 

 apparently to the following form : Will the destruction of 

 a given quantity of ants pay for three times that quantity 

 of the smaller sarden fruits? 



