No. 2O.] THE BIRDS OF CONNECTICUT. 339 



" Field observation will convince any ordinarily attentive per- 

 son that the food of swallows must consist of the smaller insects 

 captured in mid-air, or perhaps in some cases picked from the 

 tops of tall grass or weeds. This observation is borne out by 

 an examination of stomachs, which shows that the food consists 

 of many small species of beetles which are much on the wing, 

 many species of Diptera (mosquitoes and their allies), with large 

 quantities of flying ants, and a few insects of similar kinds. 

 Most of them are either injurious or annoying, and the numbers 

 destroyed by swallows are not only beyond calculation, but al- 

 most beyond imagination. 



" The White-bellied Swallow eats a considerable number of 

 berries of the bayberry, or wax myrtle. During migrations and 

 in winter it has a habit of roosting in these shrubs and it probably 

 obtains the fruit at that time." (Beal, " Some Common Birds in 

 their Relation to Agriculture.") 



" Thirty swallows, collected between the middle of May and 

 the middle of August, had eaten nothing but insects. Parasitic 

 wasps and bees formed 2 per cent of their food (less than usual 

 with aerial feeders), bugs 3 per cent, May-flies 8 per cent, beetles 

 13 per cent, white ants 21 per cent, ants 33 per cent, and mis- 

 cellaneous insects, principally flies with a few bugs, 20 per cent. 

 The forms selected were bees of the family Andrenidse, and 

 parasitic wasps of the families Scoliidae, Ichneumonidse, and 

 Chalcididse. The beetle food was interesting, for, besides click 

 beetles, dung beetles (Aphodius inquinatus, Hister, Atcenius, and 

 Onthophagus pennsylvanicus) , weevils of several species, and 

 metallic wood-borers (Agrilus), it included the engraver beetles 

 (among them Tomicus cacographus), which are destroyed by 

 only a few other birds. The food of Swallows is peculiar in its 

 lack of caterpillars and grasshoppers, which are so important 

 to the subsistence of other birds. As with Flycatchers, the 

 number of flies taken is generally overestimated. In the stomachs 

 examined were found snipe-flies (Leptidce), golden-green flesh- 

 flies (Lucilia ccusar), and other Muscidae, with an occasional 

 banded-winged horsefly (Chrysops)" (Judd, " Birds of a Mary- 

 land Farm.") During a " locust year " in Nebraska 34 and 37 

 locusts have been taken from the stomachs of two Barn Swallows 

 (Hirundo erythrogastra) , and 229 from six Cliff or Eave Swal- 



