150 The Food of Birds. 



Ma rch. 



Twenty-one specimens were examined which had been 

 shot in this month, in 1880, ranging from the 7th to the 

 Slst. Seven of these were shot at Normal, nine at Hey- 

 worth (fifteen miles south) and five at Galena, in extreme 

 northwestern Illinois. These latter differed from the cen- 

 tral Illinois specimens chiefly in the presence of the dried 

 and sometimes mouldy fruit of the sumach {Rhus glabra) 

 in their stomachs, indicating a scarcity of desirable food 

 at that early season. One of these, unfortunately for the 

 record of the month, had stuffed itself with larvas of Har- 

 palus, which made ninety-three per cent, of its food. 



Ichneumonidas (Arenetra) appear again (four per cent. ), 

 for the last time during the season. 



Harpalid beetles and their larvae were unusuallv abun- 

 dant, making up eleven per cent, of the food of the month. 

 Among these Platynus, Evarthrus, Pterostichus, Amara, 

 Chloenius tomentosus^ Agonoderus and Harpalus were rec- 

 ognized. The larvae of soldier-beetles also occur, consti- 

 tuting four per cent, of the food, but do not appear again 

 throughout the year. Four birds had eaten a predaceous 

 bug (Corisctis, near fertis),* which is too minute to figure 

 in the ratios ; and four per cent, of the food was Pentatom- 

 idae, of which only Perihalus modestus was recognizable. 

 Sixteen of the twenty-one birds had eaten spiders, making 

 five per cent, of the food. The beneficial insects thus 

 amount to twenty-eight per cent. On the other hand, 

 thirty-eight per cent, was caterpillars, chiefly Noctuidas,! 

 including Callimorpha lecontei and the army- worm {Leu- 

 cania unipuncta) ; one per cent, was Euryomia inda^ and 

 twenty-one per cent, was Orthoptera (crickets and grass- 

 hoppers) , the injurious species thus rising to sixty per cent. 

 One bird had also eaten a minute curculio. Among neu- 

 tral elements we enumerate Aphodii three per cent., lulidae 

 three per cent., and sumach berries four per cent. Two 

 birds had eaten ants, but in trivial quantity. 



*Kindly identified for me by Mr. Uhler. 



"fl have thus reported all smooth caterpillars in which the cervical 

 and ana! shields, common to most cutworms, were distinguished. A few 

 such caterpillars are not Noctuids, but are equally injurious. 



