62 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



live, a little multiplying will show that a crow devours an 

 astonishing amount of food in a year. 



A ruffed grouse killed in winter had in its crop twelve 

 leaves of sheep-laurel and four hundred and thirty-five buds 

 and bits of branches from apple and maple trees. Some of 

 the twigs were half an inch long. That was the morning 

 meal. It would have been duplicated at twilight. The crop 

 from another bird of the same species contained over five 

 hundred buds and twigs. From these examples it appears 

 that the daily requirement of this grouse lies between eight 

 hundred and one thousand buds. At other seasons of the 

 year it is impossible from an examination of its crop contents 

 to judge with any certainty how much a grouse eats, as then 

 the birds eat at all times of day. 



Professor Herrick, 1 in his study of the red-winged black- 

 bird, noted that three nestlings received food forty times in 

 four hours on one day, and forty-three times in three and a 

 half hours on another day. Four young kingbirds 2 were fed 

 ninety-one times in four hours. Two young red-eyed vireos 3 

 took grasshoppers, katydids, green larva 1 , beetles, and bugs of 

 many kinds, also a few berries, once in fifteen minutes during 

 two days and once in nine minutes on the third day. Four 

 young cat-birds 4 received food forty-six times in four hours, 

 after the old birds had become reconciled to the presence 

 of the observer. Five times in succession large dragon-flies 

 (jEschna hero*), just from their pupa-skins, were brought in. 

 Beetles, moths, larv;p, and strawberries were among the items. 



A brood of three young cedar-birds watched by us made 

 an average gain during the first eleven days of 1.13 drams, 

 avoirdupois, per bird per day. Excreta, voided on an average 

 of three per hour, averaged to weigh one-sixth of a dram 

 during the same period. Reckoning fifteen hours of activity 



1 The Home Life of Wild Birds, p. 21. 

 ' 2 Id., p. -27. 3 Id., p. 69. 



