GAME, AQUATIC, AND RAPACIOUS BIRDS. 21 



2 stomachs collected in May in North Dakota. About 75 per cent 

 of the contents of each of these consisted of wheat probably gathered 

 from newly sown fields. This was the only vegetable food found in 

 any stomach that was of the least economic value. 



Of the animal food the most important item is grasshoppers. 

 These amount to 43.43 per cent of the food of the season, and in Sep- 

 tember and October constitute over four-fifths of the whole diet. As 

 an example of the number these birds can eat at a single meal, the 

 following may be cited. Stomach A contained 70 entire grasshop- 

 pers and jaws of 56 more, with remains of 3 crickets. Stomach B 

 contained 20 beetles, 66 crickets, 34 grasshoppers, and 3 other insects. 

 Stomach C contained 90 whole grasshoppers, the jaws of 52 more, 

 with 8 crickets, 1 bug, and 1 caterpillar. Stomach D contained 82 

 beetles, 87 bugs, 984 ants, 1 cricket, 1 grasshopper, and 2 spiders, or 

 1,157 insects in all. Stomach E was filled with 327 nymphs of dragon 

 flies. Several other stomachs were completely filled with grasshop- 

 pers and crickets, too far advanced in digestion to be counted. 

 Adults and larvae (grubs) of May beetles were also a large component 

 of the food and these were probably taken upon cultivated ground. 

 Stomachs collected in Louisiana during the fall migration contained 

 in addition to grasshoppers and beetles large numbers of true bugs 

 (Hemiptera), including several species which are injurious to cotton, 

 tobacco, and squashes. From this brief statement of the food of 

 Franklin's gull, farmers will readily perceive that these birds are 

 very desirable neighbors and will do all in their power to protect 

 them. 



There are several other species of gulls and terns that, like Frank- 

 lin's, take up their residence about the lakes and marshes in the 

 interior of the country. Their food habits, as far as known, are all 

 beneficial to the farmer. They are great eaters of grasshoppers and 

 have been seen catching those insects on the wing and also may often 

 be seen following the plow in search of the grubs and beetles turned 

 up. Among these are the California gull (Larus calif ornicus), the 

 ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis) , and the black tern (Hydrocheli- 

 don nigra surinamensis) . The latter lives and breeds about marshes 

 where there is often little or no open water. 



An illustration of the value of gulls as insect destroyers is fur- 

 nished by the experience of the Mormons when they settled in Utah 

 and raised their first crops of grain. This is graphically described 

 by Hon. Geo. A. Cannon, temporary chairman of the Third Irriga- 

 tion Congress: 



Black crickets came down by millions and destroyed our grain crops; promising 

 fields of wheat in the morning were in the evening as smooth as a man's hand de- 

 voured by the crickets. At this juncture sea gulls [California gulls] came by hundreds 

 and thousands, and before the crops were entirely destroyed these gulls devoured the 



