The Food of Birds. 149 



Fe h r a a r // . 



The ten birds of this month were all shot at Normal, 111., 

 from the 24th to the 29th of the month, in the present year. 

 These stomachs, with those ol)tained from Galena, in early 

 JVIarch, represent the lirst food of the season. 



The record opens with a bird shot on the 24.tli. Thirty per 

 cent, of its food had been grass-eatiniicntworms, forty per 

 cent, crickets {Gryllus (ihhreviatus)^ tive percent. Ichneu- 

 monidae {Arenetra 7iigrita Cress.), and twenty-five per cent, 

 the larvcti of the two-lined soldier-beetle ( Tcdephorus h'l- 

 I'nieatus). Now, the ichneumons are doubtless parasitic, 

 although about the habits of the genus Arenetra, I have at 

 present but little specific information; and the soldier-bee- 

 tles are reported by Professor Riley and others to be hiiihly 

 useful insects, noted especially for the destruction of the 

 apple- worm and the eggs of grasshoppers.* 



Taking the month together, we find that the most im- 

 portant elements of the food were cutworms and ichneu- 

 mons — twenty-four per cent, of the former to twenty-two 

 per cent, of the latter. The larvae of the soldier-l)eetles 

 amount to eight per cent., locusts (chielly the young of 

 Tragoeephala viridifasciata) to nine per cent., Caral)id 

 beetles and their larvcv (including Amara and Anisodacty- 

 lus) to five per cent., Pentatomid^e or soldier-bugs (chiefly 

 Ftischistiis serims) to seven per cent., spiders to four per 

 cent., and lulidtt (thousand-legs) to three per cent. Other 

 items are, two percent, caterpillars of Arctians ( Callimor- 

 pha lecontei)., four per cent, crickets, and nine i)er cent, 

 dung-beetles { Aphodius fi'metarius and A. inqulnatus). The 

 ichneumons, Carabid beetles, soldier-bugs and spiders thus 

 make up forty-six per cent, of beneficial insects, while the 

 caterpillars and Orthoptera amount to but forty-one per 

 cent, of injurious species. Or, if we droj) the Pentatomidje 

 from the former category, on account of the supposed 

 trifling injuries to vegetation done by some of them (hence 

 often called "plant-bugs"), the figures will stand, benefi- 

 cial insects thirty-nine, to forty-one injurious. 



*See 4th Rep. State Ent. Mo., p. 29, and Rep. U. S. Ent. Cumm., 

 1877, p. 302. 



