164 Bird - Lore 
The Black-headed Grosbeak is sometimes complained of 
What He Eats by the fruit-growers on the Pacific coast. It is a bird fond 
of figs, cherries and berries. But fruit is not the major part 
of its diet. It destroys many insects that are harmful to the fruit-grower, 
such as the codling moth, canker-worm, flower beetles and scale insects. 
According to Bulletin No. 32 of the Bureau of Biological Survey, entitled 
‘Food Habits of the Grosbeaks,’ by W. L. McAtee, the Black-headed Gros- 
beak is a bird of economic value to the fruit-grower, notwithstanding the fact 
that it eats some fruit. An examination of 226 stomachs of this bird, the 
MALE BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK FEEDING YOUNG 
Photographed by H. T. Bohlman 
majority of which were collected in California, shows that, during his six 
months’ stay in his summer home, the bird consumes an average of 34.15 per 
cent of vegetable and 65.85 per cent of animal food. This bird shows a distinct 
preference for black-olive scale, one of the most abundant and destructive 
insects on the coast. This insect constitutes 20.32 per cent of the Grosbeak’s 
entire food. Of the stomachs examined, this insect was found to have been 
eaten by 123 birds. This service alone more than pays fruit-growers for the 
fruit it eats. To give a clearer estimate of the value of this bird to man, scien- 
tific observations show that, for every quart of fruit eaten, the Black-headed 
Grosbeak eats more than three pints of black-olive scales, more than a quart 
of flower beetles, besides a generous supply of canker-worms and the pupz 
of the codling-moth. 
The Black-headed Grosbeak has a rollicking song, like 
Song that of the Western Robin and Western Tanager. I have, 
at times, found it difficult to distinguish the song of the Gros- 
beak and that of the Tanager. The Black-headed Grosbeak is brilliant both. 
