60 USEFUL BIRDS. 



examined, and much has been done in observing the feed- 

 ing habits of birds in the field. The work in economic orni- 

 thology performed by Merriam, Fisher, Barrows, Beal, and 

 Judd is of great value. Its results rank above those of 

 all other similar investigations, and must be considered as 

 authoritative. 



Professor Beal found in the stomach of a Yellow-billed 

 Cuckoo two hundred and seventeen fall webworms, and in 

 another two hundred and fifty American tent caterpillars. 

 Two Flickers were found to have eaten respectively three 

 thousand and five thousand ants. Sixty grasshoppers were 

 found in the stomach of a Xighthawk. 



Professor Harvey found five hundred mosquitoes in a 

 Nighthawk's stomach. In this case the insects must have 

 been fully grown, as the larvse of the mosquito are found 

 mainly in water, and the Nighthawk takes its food on the 

 wing. The stomach of this useful bird is much larger in pro- 

 portion to its size than that of most other birds ; but sev- 

 enty-five hundred seeds of the yellow Avood sorrel had been 

 eaten by a Mourning Dove, sixty-four hundred by another, 

 and ninety-two hundred seeds, chiefly of weeds, were found 

 in another. Here we have twenty-three thousand one hun- 

 dred seeds, mostly those of weeds, eaten at a meal by three 

 birds. Probably where these large numbers are given, the 

 result is approximate, and is arrived at by counting a part 

 of the contents for a measure, and from this estimating the 

 rest in bulk. 



Dr. Judd says that the stomachs of four Bank Swallows 

 contained, all together, just two hundred ants, and that a 

 Xighthawk has been known to eat one thousand at a single 

 meal. He speaks of seventeen hundred seeds of weeds hav- 

 ing been taken at one feeding by a Bob-white ; three thou- 

 sand leguminous seeds were found in the stomach of another, 

 and no less than five thousand seeds of pigeon grass were 

 taken from a third. Dr. Warren has taken twenty-eight 

 cutworms from the stomach of a Red-winged Blackbird. 

 Stomachs of Snowflakes have each contained from five 

 hundred to fifteen hundred seeds of amaranth. Professor 

 Forbes found in the stomachs of seven Cedar Birds a number 



