416 Canadian Record of Science. 
occasions observed a large species of ground beetle, Calosoma 
frigidum, killing them, seizing a caterpillar in its powerful 
jaws and shaking it just as a terrier doesarat. Professor 
Saunders, in his Presidential address to the Entomological 
Society of Ontario, for 1880, speaking on this subject, says : 
‘““When the cut worms were so common with us, this spring, 
that any bird, with very little effort, might have its fill of 
them, the contents of a number of stomachs were examined, 
especially those of the robin, and not a single specimen of 
this larve was found inany of them. It has been urged that 
some birds devour the larve of the plum curculio, by pick- 
ing them out of the fallen fruit, but I have failed to find any 
confirmation of this statement, indeed never found a curculio 
larvee in the stomach of any bird, excepting once in that of 
a robin, who had evidently swallowed it by accident when 
bolting a whole cherry. 
As for the robin having any claims upon the sympathies 
of man for the good he does, I fear that but a very slight 
case can be made out in his favour. Of fruit he is a thief 
of the very worst kind, stealing early and late, from the time 
of strawberries until the last grapes are gathered, not con- 
tent to eat entirely the fruit he attacks, but biting a piece 
out here and there from the finest specimens, and thus de- 
stroying a far greater quantity than would suffice to fill him 
to his utmost capacity. At the time of writing, flocks of 
the most pertinacious specimens are destroying the best of 
my grapes, while alongside is a patch of cabbages almost 
eaten up with the larve of the cabbage butterfly, nice, fat, 
smooth grubs, easily swallowed, but no such thing will Mr. 
Robin look at as long as good fruit can be had.” . 
I have myself, during the past year and up to the present, 
so far as my opportunities would permit, examined the 
stomachs of birds, with the following results :— 
1888. 
May 14th—Baltimore Oriole. Jcterus galbulu. Ground 
beetles belonging to the genera Platynus and 
Pterostichus. 
These are predacious insects, and are classed as beneficial. 
