﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 159 



ing on dead bats and birds. Few things, therefore, come amiss to them. 

 Yet where food is abundant they are fastidious and much prefer acid, 

 bitter or peppery food to that which is sweet. The following resume 

 of my notes and observations may prove interesting : Vegetables and 

 cereals are their main stay. Turnips, rutabagas, carrots, cabbage, 

 kohlrabi and radishes are all devoured with avidity ; beets and pota- 

 toes with less relish, though frequently nothing but a few stalk-stubs 

 of the latter are left, and sometimes, the tubers in the ground do not 

 escape. Onions they are very partial to, seldom leaving anything but 

 the outer rind. Of leguminous plants the pods are preferred to the 

 leaves, which are often passed by. Cucurbitaceous plants also suffer 

 most in the fruit. In the matter of tobacco their tastes are cultivated 

 and they seem to relish an old quid or an old cigar more than the 

 green leaf. Tomatoes and sweet potatoes are not touched so long as 

 other food is to mouth. 



Of cereals, corn is their favorite ; if young and tender, everything 

 is devoured to the ground ; if older and drier, the stalks are mostly 

 left ; the silk is, however, the first part to go. All other cereals are to 

 their taste, except sorghum and broom corn, which are often left un- 

 touched. They are fond of buckwheat and flax, but seldom touch 

 castor beans. 



Next to vegetables and cereals, they relish the leaves of fruit 

 trees ; they strip apple and sweet cherry trees, leaving nothing but 

 the fruit hanging on the bare twigs. The leaves of the peach are gen- 

 erally left untouched, but the flesh of the unripe fruit is eaten to the 

 stone. Pear trees, as Mr. Gale informs me, suffered less than any 

 other kind of orchard tree at the Experimental farm at Manhattan, 

 Kansas. The tender bark of twig and branch and trunk of all these 

 trees is gnawed and girdled, and these girdled trees present a sad 

 picture as one passes through the ravaged country during the subse- 

 quent Winter. Sour cherry, apricot and plum trees are less afi'ected 

 by them, while ripe fruit is seldom touched. 



Of berries, strawberries and blackberries are devoured where 

 raspberries are frequently unmolested. Flowering shrubs very gen- 

 erally sufi'er, and they are particularly fond of Rose and Lilac. Of 

 herbaceous plants, Helianthus, Amaranthus and Xanthium are eaten 

 with especial avidity. Grape vines suflfer more from the girdling of 

 the fruit stems than from defoliation. Forest and shade trees sufi'er in 

 difi'erent degrees, and some, when young, are not unfrequently killed 

 outright. 



Last year. Honey Locust, Eed Cedar, Box Elder, Osage Orange, 



