130 The Food of Birds. 



is here distinctly discernible. Twenty-two per cent, of 

 the food of these birds consists of raspberries, five per 

 cent, of strawberries and one per cent, of cherries, making 

 a total of twenty-nine per cent, of fruits. Fragments of 

 corn and oats amount to nineteen per cent. 



J u I y . 



But seven birds were examined in July; all from the 

 vicinity of Normal. All of these had eaten insects, which 

 amounted to only about one-fourth of the food. Both ants 

 and caterpillars were present in trifling quantity. Only 

 about half as many Coleoptera had been taken as in the 

 month preceding. Hemiptera and Orthoptera each make 

 up four per cent, of the food, and Arachnida and Myri- 

 apoda are entirely wanting. Oarabidee stand at four per 

 cent., as in June, spring-beetles continue at three and 

 snout-beetles amount to two per cent. Evarthrus colossus 

 was found among the CarabidfB. Heteraspis puhescens^ 

 Colaspis hrunnea and Diahrotica 12-guttata represented 

 the plant-beetles. The fruits of July amounted to sixty- 

 two per cent, of the food, — all blackberries. Twelve per 

 cent, consisted of fragments of corn. 



Atigust. 



Twelve birds were shot in August, all from McLean 

 county, at various times in the month from the 7th to the 

 30th. The insect averages rally again in August, returning 

 now to fifty-one per cent. Hymenoptera rise to fourteen 

 per cent., — the highest average of the season, — a fact due 

 doubtless to the swarming of certain species of ants at 

 this time of the year. 



Caterpillars amount to eleven per cent, of the food; 

 Coleoptera fall away to ten, and all but one of these are 

 Carabida?. Cratacanthus duhhis seems to be especially 

 abundant in the later summer and early autumnal months. 

 Four per cent, of the food of these birds consists of this 

 species, and it has likewise been found prominent in the 

 food of the bluebird and the catbird at the same season 

 of the year. A small percentage of snout-beetles and 

 plant-beetles call for no special remark. Hemiptera now 



