132 The Food of Birds. 



eight specimens shot in April, May, June and July. A test 

 of the substantial correctness of the conclusions of the pres- 

 ent paper may be made by comparing the averages of the 

 table printed herewith with the table on page 150 of the 

 Transactions cited. If the important ratios of the present 

 table, covering the food of sixty-four specimens, shot during 

 six months of the year, agree substantially with that table 

 of the food of twenty-eight specimens, covering but four 

 months of the year, this will be sufficient evidence of their 

 general correctness I will give these averages alternately, 

 first for the former table and then for the present. The 

 twenty-eight specimens of 1879 had eaten insects to the 

 amount of fifty-nine per cent., and sixty-four specimens of 

 the table of 1880 had eaten insects to the amount of fifty- 

 one per cent. Hymenoptera are seven in the first and eight 

 in the second ; ants are seven in the first and also in the 

 second; Lepidoptera seven and seven, Dipteraa trace and 

 one, Coleoptera twenty-nine and twenty-five, Oarabidae 

 six and six, Silphidae two and one ; leaf-chafers nine and 

 ten, spring-beetles one and two, snout-beetles three and 

 two, Hemiptera two and four, Orthoptera four and four, 

 Arachnida one and one, Myriapoda four and three, and 

 fruits twenty-two and twenty-four. A larger percentage 

 of Hemiptera is due to the much greater abundance of 

 chinch-bugs in 1880. 



R e c ap i t u latio n . 



The brown thrush, arriving in April, finds nearly one- 

 half of its food in fragments of corn and other grains and 

 seeds picked from the droppings of animals. This curious 

 habit it maintains throughout the year, evidently taking 

 this food from preference as well as from necessity. In 

 fact I have often found these vegetable fragments associ- 

 ated with blackberries in the food. 



After April this element averages about sixteen per cent, 

 throughout the season. Insects amount to about half the 

 food for each month, except in May when they rise to 

 three-fourths and in July when they drop to one-fourth. 

 The excess in May occurs at the time of the greatest num- 

 ber and activity of the beetles, and the diminution in July 



