Vol.XXXIllj General Notes. 205 



Dendroica- auduboni. Auduwon'h Warbler. — Four specimens. 

 Three from Little Pumpkin Creek, April 2.'i, 2G and 27, 1000, and one from 

 Ft. Keoufrh, May 25, 1902. 



Oporornis tolmiei. MacGillivray's Wardijor. — One male. Ft. 

 Keoufrh, May 2r,, 1002. 



Wilsonia pusilla pileolata. Pileolated Waruler. — One specimen 

 in Dr. iiishop's collection, Sej)tcmber 22, 1900. 



Sitta canadensis. JIed-hreasted Nuthatch.— Seven specimens. 

 Little l'unii)kin and (Jtter Creeks, April 25-27, 1900, and one from Ft. 

 Keouffli, May IS, 1902. I observed several of these birds in the Long Pine 

 Hills, November Hi, 1909. 



Regulus satrapa (.subsj)ecies?j. GoLUEN-(;Rf)"WNED Kinglet.— I olj- 

 served two of these birds in the Long Pine Hills, November 29, 1909. 



Regulus calendula calendula. Ruhy-crowned Kinglet. — One 

 male. Ft. Keough, September 22, 1900.^ Areta.s A. Saunders, West 

 Haven, Conn. 



The Rose Beetle Poisonous to Young Birds. - In. 1914, Mr. Ernest 

 Napier, President of the New .Jersey Fish and Game Commission reported 

 to the Biological Survey the loss of hundreds of pheasant chicks and of 

 numerous young ducks and chickens from eating rose beetles {Macro- 

 dactylus suhspinosus). Four young Ring-necked Pheasants were examined 

 and rose beetles found to compose 48, .30, .50 and 17 per cent respectively 

 of their food. The largest number of rose beetles in any one was 12. The 

 crops of these birds were only from one-fourth to three-fourths full and 

 thoroughly ground up remains of the beetles were present in each gizzard, 

 showing that the insects were being digested in regiilar course. There 

 being no evidence of crop binding, to which the trouljle had been attri- 

 buted, ^ and a positive diagnosis of white diarrhoea being obtained, it was 

 concluded that the rose beetles were not the' direct cau.se of the mortality. 



It is of great interest, therefore, that the ro.se beetle has recently been 

 ■di.scovered to " contain a neuro-toxin that has an effect upon the heart 

 action of both chickens and ralibits and is excessively dangerous as a food 

 for chickens." ^ In experimental feeding of ro.se beetles to young chicks 

 death resulted in from 9 to 24 hours. Similar results were obtained with 

 an extract of rose chafers. Resistance to the poison increased rapidly with 

 the age of the chicks and none over ten weeks old was killed. 



Besides the obvious economic a.spect of this discovery, and the indicated 

 necessity of keeping young domesticated birds away from rose-beetles, the 

 facts have an interesting bearing on the theory of " protected " insects and 

 their warning colors. This, a poisonous insect according to the theory 



> Prof. F. E. L. Heal informs the writer that it is sometimes necessary to open the 

 crops of young turkeys because of clogging up by rose bugs. 



2 Lamson, George H., Jr. — The poisonous effects of the rose chafer upon chickens. 

 Journ. Ec. Ent., 8, No. 6, Dec., 1915, p. 548: Science, N. S., 43, Jan. 28, 1916, p. 139. 



