140 The Food of Birds. 



Coleoptera make thirty per cent, of the food, eleven per 

 cent, being Carabid^. Dyschirius glohulosiis^ Platynus, 

 Evarthrns, Pterostichns, Amara, Aiiisodactylus discoideus, 

 Bradycellus and Stenolophus are mentioned in my notes. 

 Four per cent, are water-beetles, five per cent, scavenger- 

 beetles, two per cent, curculios and two per cent, plant- 

 beetles. Leaf-chafers and spring-beetles amount to one 

 per cent, each — the latter chiefly of the genus Melanotus. 

 Lixus concavus and Listronotus mwqualipen'nis occur among 

 the curculios, and Chrysomela suturalis, Gastrophysa 

 dissiniilis and Plagiodera viridis among the plant- beetles. 

 Eight per cent, of the food was Hemiptera, nearly all of 

 which were predaceous. Podisus spinosus was the only 

 species determined. Grasshoppers (Tettixand Tettigidea) 

 make seven per cent, of the food. Respecting the number 

 of beetles eaten by this bird, we have to remember that 

 it passes us at the time of that great outpouring of insect 

 life connected with the pairing of the spring Coleoptera 

 which we have already seen to have a very significant 

 relation to the food of birds. It rides northward, in fact, 

 on the crest of this Coleopterous wave, and we find the 

 same excess of predaceous Coleoptera in its food which 

 occurs in the food of the other thrushes at the same season. 

 Concerning the two October specimens taken in northern 

 Illinois I need only say that they had eaten ants, cater- 

 pillars, Carabid^e, curculios, Pentatomidae and Orthoptera, 

 spiders, lulidae and the larvae of Bibio. The habits of this 

 bird suggest that the principal drain on the numbers of 

 predaceous beetles may be due to the depredations of the 

 migrants, at the season of the greatest exposure of these 

 insects; and that the complete destruction of resident 

 birds would affect the number of these carnivorous insects 

 much less than would at first seem likely. The reader 

 curious to see the points in which this species contrasts 

 with the other thrushes, may consult the table of the food 

 of the family on page 147. 



TuRDUS KLiQiM, Bd. Alice Thrush. 



The Alice thrush is a bird of frequent occurrence during 

 the migrations. It breeds far to the north, rare summer 



