SECTION VI. - NATURAl- ENEMIES OF THE KRO(; IlOPrER. 77 



several droppings containing many insect remains. These were examined 

 and found to contain large numbers of beetles and other insects, but no 

 froghoppers. 



It is possible that the froghoppers are chiefly eaten during the early 

 part of the night when they fly most {see p. 57), and that these drop- 

 pings represented the remains of the food taken later. 



(17.) Crotophaga ani. Common Tick-bird. INIerle corbeau. (Fig. 16.) 



This bird is frequentlj' seen in the cane fields, particularly in the 

 neighbourhood of small copses, but, it is said by planters not to be so 

 common as formerly. 



K e r s h aw 

 examined 

 the stomach 

 of one bird 

 and found 

 four froghop- 

 pers, other 

 insects and 

 some seeds 

 of a weed. 

 One that I 

 .shot at Caroni 

 on 4th Oc- 

 tober ]917 

 contained 

 s e V e r a 1 

 beetles 

 (including 

 (^assidae and 

 Chr i/some- 

 lidce) several 

 large bugs 

 {Coreid(S), 

 and four spiny 

 caterpillars ; 

 another shot 

 on 6th No- 

 vember 1917 

 at Caroni 

 among canes 

 badly i n- 

 fested with 

 hundreds of 

 froghoppers, 



contained a Fij 



large grass- 

 hopper, a large spider, a large black Corcid bug, a small green L'cntalomid 

 bug, several small grasshoppers and only one froghopper ; a third shot in 

 the Oropuche Lagoon on the 12th October, 1919 contained one large 

 red-bodied grasshopper. 



Mr. T. I. Potter tells me that he has seen one of these birds kill a 

 smaller bird just escaped from captivity. 



The stomach contents indicate that, while capable of eating frog- 

 hoppers, the Tick Bird prefers larger prey, particularly grasshoppers. This 

 conclusion is confirmed by dissections made in the cane fields in Porta 

 liico. Wetmore (lairds of Porto Rico, Board of Couunissioners of 

 Agriculture, Porto Rico. Insular Experimental Station Bull. 15 (1916* 

 p. 60) found after an examination of 41 stomachs that 91'o per cent, of 



Fig-. 16. 



11} —The T'\.cV-h\\d {i'rotopluifjti ani). 

 About two-fiftlis natui-al size. 



