° i5i4 J Recent Literature. 421 



by C. M. Weed and W. F. Fiske, two competent entomologists. The 

 parent sparrows visited the nest about 200 times during the day they were 

 observed. The observers were able to decide in 38 cases that caterpillars 

 were brought, but a definite identification of a food item to the family was 

 made in only one instance, and tentative reference to a species or family 

 in only 10 cases. In the Brown Thrasher paper (No. 1 above), on the other 

 hand, only 92 identifications out of 1260 are less definite than to the order. 

 In other words Weed and Fiske were able ^o identify to the order or better 

 only 49 insects brought in 200 visits (proportion 1 to 4), while the author 

 of Paper No. 1 so identifies 1168 invertebrates brought during 775 trips 

 (proportion 1.5 to 1). 



Professor F. E. L. Beal has watched the feeding of the nestlings of many 

 species of birds and he has rarely been able to distinguish the character of 

 the food given; the reviewer in his more limited field has had the same ex- 

 perience. A great many birds feed by regurgitation and the food is at no 

 time visible. The reviewer has pointed out ^ a good way of getting at the 

 general character of the food of nestlings, that is, by examination of the 

 excrement (it may be collected in small cloth bags tied on the birds). 

 What is needed above aU, however, is more careful, more scientific work, 

 and especially more preparation for the work, and finally pubUcation only 

 of absolute certainties. — W. L. M. 



Economic Ornithology in Recent Entomological Publications. — 



Three of this year's publications of the United States Bureau of Entomol- 

 ogy, contain notes on the bird enemies of insect pests. The sugar-beet wire- 

 worm {Limonius californicus) does great damage to sugar beets and hma 

 beans on the Pacific coast. It is one of the ch'ck beetles, a group preyed 

 upon by most insectivorous birds. A Mst of birds, common in the infested 

 fields, and which are Ukely to feed on the beetles is given, in a publication 

 on this insect ^ in addition to direct proof that the California shrike is an 

 important enemy. About 70 to 80 per cent of the excrement of this species 

 was composed of fragments of Limonius californicus. 



Another wireworm, erroneously so called, in this instance however, is 

 said to damage the tobacco crop in Virginia at least $800,000 annually. 

 This " wireworm " is the larva of a moth (Crambus calignosellus) of the 

 family Crambidse. It is stated^ that: 



" Birds are a factor in keeping the tobacco Crambus in check. Two 

 species, the quail {Colinus virginianus) and the kingbird {Tyr annus tyran- 

 nus) were observed by the writer to capture the moths, and others are 

 known to feed freely on moths of this genus. F. M. Webster states that 



1 Bull. 32, U. S. Biological Survey, 1908, pp. 23-24. 



2 Graf, J. E. A preliminary report on the sugar-beet wireworm. Bull. 123, 

 U. S. Bur. Ent., Feb. 1914, pp. 46-47. 



« Runner, G. A. The So-called Tobacco Wireworm in Virginia. Bull. 78, 

 U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, May, 1914, pp. 13-14. 



