92 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



per cent, of winged ants were eaten and seventy per cent, of 

 fruits, more than half of the fruits being grapes and the re- 

 mainder berries of the moon-seed and mountain-ash. Dur- 

 ing October and later months large numbers of wild grapes 

 were eaten. 



Taking the year as a whole, insects form almost two-thirds 

 of the food of the robin. 



In the investigations of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture three hundred and thirty stomachs of the robin 

 have been examined. In the summary of the results, by 

 Professor F. E. L. Beal, it is said that more than forty-two 

 per cent, of its food consists of animal matter, chiefly insects, 

 the rest being composed for the most part of small fruits and 

 berries, largely of wild sorts. Noxious insects are believed 

 to constitute at least one-third of the robin's food, grasshop- 

 pers alone forming ten per cent, of all the material eaten. 

 "Vegetable food forms nearly fifty-eight per cent, of the 

 stomach contents, over forty-seven per cent, being wild fruits, 

 and only a little more than four per cent, being possibly cul- 

 tivated varieties. Cultivated fruit amounting to about twenty- 

 five per cent, was found in the stomachs in June and July, 

 but only a trifle in August. Wild fruit, on the centrary, is 

 eaten in every month and constitutes a staple food during 

 half the year. No less than forty-one species were identified 

 in the stomachs ; of these the most important were four 

 species of dogwood, three of wild grapes, four of greenbrier, 

 two of holly, two of elder; and cranberries, huckleberries, 

 blueberries, barberries, service-berries, hackberries, and per- 

 simmons, with four species of sumach and various seeds not 

 strictly fruit. 1 ' 



Six robins shot in Nebraska by Professor Aughey had eaten 

 two hundred and sixty-five Rocky Mountain locusts and 

 eighty-four other insects. In Wisconsin Professor King exam- 

 ined the stomachs of thirty-seven specimens taken during the 

 interval between March and October. " Five birds had eaten 



