THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF BIRDS. 11. 



zagging through the air, gathering in flying insects on the wing. Flycatch- 

 ers watch for flying insects from high perches. Towhees, under the bushes, 

 find the lowly creatures which creep about on the ground and would thus 

 escape the observation of the swallows. Chickadees, tits, nuthatches, king- 

 lets, warblers and wrens search the bark and leaves of trees and shrubbery. 

 Some favor the lower branches, others prefer the topmost limbs, others in- 

 differently search the trees from roots to top, scanning every nook and crevice 

 for the small insects which would escape the attention of larger birds, but 

 which are so destructive, including scale insects, plant lice, and innumerable 

 insect eggs. Hawks and owls hover over fields, orchards, forests and 

 meadows, watching for luckless mice, squirrels, rabbits and other destructive 

 rodents, which girdle trees and destroy grain. Finches and sparrows haunt 

 weed patches during the winter, consuming almost incredible numbers of weed 

 seeds, then in summer catch insects for themselves and their young. Wood- 

 peckers destroy the larvae of wood-boring insects, which cannot well be 

 reached by other birds. The good work goes on from the first peep of dawn 

 until late twilight, the owls even working on night shift. Some species are 

 with us the year round, others remain only through the summer, while 

 others come in from the north in the winter. Many species which are not 

 highly insectivorous as adults, feed their young almost entirely upon tiiu 

 soft-bodied insects during the first few days of their existence. 



In August, when grasshoppers are abundant, they form a very large 

 element in the food of many species, even including some of the large hawks. 

 Aughey's (22) report upon birds of Nebraska in relation to the Rocky Moun- 

 tain locust, which was such a scourge from 35 to 45 years ago, is a classic. 

 He definitely reports 202 species of birds found feeding upon the locusts and 

 their eggs, including even water birds. About half of these records were 

 based upon actual count of the grasshoppers in the stomachs. A very large 

 percentage of the stomachs contained over 25 locusts and a considerable 

 number contained over 60. Many other species are now known to take 

 locusts and grasshoppers. As Aughey's report has long been out of print, is 

 inaccessible to most students, and the relation of birds to locust and grass- 

 hopper outbreaks in the West is an important matter, the following sum- 

 mary of his data has been tabulated, giving average numbers of Rocky 

 Mountain locusts in the stomachs of the various species (including in a few 

 instances other members of the grasshopper family), the average number of 

 other insects, besides other food, the x being used where the actual number 

 is not designated, and in a few cases percentages being indicated, instead of 

 actual numbers : 



(22) Aughey, Samuel, Notes on the Nature of the Food of the Birds of Nebraska, 

 First Ann. Kept. U. S. Entom. Comm., for the year 1877, Relating to the Rocky Moun- 

 tain Locust, Appendix II, pp. 13-62, 1878. Reprinted as Unclassified Pub. No. 14, U. S. 

 Geol. & Geog. Surv. Terr. (Hayden Survey). 



