14 The Regulative Action of Birds upon Insect Oscillations. 



other seeds. The Lepidoptera (twenty-seven per cent.) were 

 nearly all the larva? of Nephelodes violans. Of the Coleoptera 

 (eleven per cent.), part were Anomala and Elateridte, and the 

 remainder consisted of specimens of Tanymecus confertiis^ eaten 

 by one of the birds. A grasshopper had also been taken by one, 

 making ten per cent, of the food; and traces of Hemiptera were 

 recognized. 



Icterus galbula, L. Baltimore Oriole. 



Not common. Three were shot. These had fed only on 

 insects, — Lepidoptera forty per cent, and Coleoptera sixty per 

 cent., the former all canker-worms, and the latter chiefly Anomala 

 bi7iotata (fifty per cent.). Six per cent, of Cerambycida? and two 

 of Rhynchophora should also be mentioned. 



Icterus spurius. L. Orchard Oriole. 



This bird was common in 1881, although but two were shot; 

 but was not noticed the next year. More than three-fourths of 

 the food of these consisted of canker-worms, and other caterpil- 

 lars made an additional twenty per cent., leaving but three per 

 cent, for ants. 



QuiscALUs PURPUREus ^N^EUs, Bartr. Bronzed Grackle. 



Wandering specimens of the grackle were seen, and a few 

 were apparently roosting in the trees at night. But three were 

 shot, all of which had fed chiefly upon corn, which amounted to 

 sixty-two per cent, of their food. Fragments of a crawfish were 

 found in the stomach of one. Half the thirty per cent, of Cole- 

 optera were Carabidfe, including a specimen of Calosoma calidum, 

 and the remainder were nearly all Lucanida? (Dorcus, eight per 

 cent.) and undetermined Elateridag. 



IS u m m a r y of the Family. 



The five species of this family mentioned were represented by 

 but eleven specimens, which, taken together, were found to have 

 made two-thirds of their food of insects, the remaining third of corn 

 and wheat with a few seeds of weeds. Canker-worms, eaten by 

 the orioles, only amounted to one-fourth of the food of the whole, 



