INSECTS IN RELATION TO OTHER ANIMALS 285 



raspberries form fifty-five per cent, and insects (ants, cater- 

 pillars, wire-worms- and Carabidse) forty-two per cent, of the 

 food; and in July, raspberries, blackberries and currants form 

 seventy-nine per cent, and insects (mostly caterpillars, beetles 

 and crickets) but twenty per cent, of the food. In August, 

 insects rise to forty-three per cent, and fruits drop to fifty-six 

 per cent., and these are mostly cherries, of which two thirds 

 are wild kinds. In September, ants form fifteen per cent, of 

 the food, caterpillars five per cent, and fruits (mostly grapes, 

 mountain-ash berries and moonseed berries) seventy per cent. 

 In October, the food consists chiefly of wild grapes (fifty- 

 three per cent.), ants (thirty-five per cent.), and caterpillars 

 (six per cent.). 



For the year, judging from the stomach contents of one 

 hundred and fourteen birds, garden fruits form only twenty- 

 nine per cent, of the food of the robin, while insects constitute 

 two thirds of the food. The results are confirmed by those 

 of Professor Beal in Michigan, who found that more than 

 forty-two per cent, of the food of the robin consists of insects 

 with some other animal matter, the remainder being made up* 

 of various small fruits, but notably the wild kinds. 



Upon the whole, the robin deserves to be protected as an 

 energetic destroyer of cutworms, white grubs and other injuri- 

 ous insects, and the comparatively few cultivated berries that 

 the bird appropriates are ordinarily but a meagre compensa- 

 tion for the valuable services rendered to man by this familiar 

 bird. 



Catbird. Not so much can be said for the catbird, however, 

 for though its food habits are similar to those of the robin, it 

 arrives later and departs earlier, with the result that it is less 

 dependent than the robin upon insects and that berries form a 

 larger percentage of its total food. 



In May, eighty-three per cent, of the food of the catbird 

 consists of insects, mostly beetles (Carabidse, Rhynchophora, 

 etc.), crane-flies, ants and caterpillars (Noctuidse) ; while dry 

 sumach berries are eaten to the extent of seven per cent. For 



