116 BULLETIN 326, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



They amount to 24.36 per cent of the total, and as their habits in the Tropics 

 seem little known must be regarded as neutral species. Four of the birds se- 

 cured in April and May had eaten the mole cricket (Scapteriscus didactylus), 

 though in small quantity (0.21 per cent). Other Orthoptera (7.2 per cent) 

 were eaten 18 times and were composed in great part of other crickets, roaches, 

 numbers of roach egg cases, and a few grasshoppers and their eggs. Cicadas, 

 found in nine stomachs, form a considerable share of the bulk (7.56 per cent). 

 Other bug remains, a stinkbug, tree hoppers, and some other fragments, total 

 1.36 per cent. 



Weevils form one-seventh of the entire food, and among them the scarred- 

 snout beetles are the best represented (12.89 per cent). The cane root-borer 

 {Diaprepes spengleri) was eaten 3 times, the coffee leaf -weevil 11, and mem- 

 bers of this family were identified in 30 stomachs. Curculios come to 0.6 per 

 cent and miscellaneous Rhyncophora to 1.72 per cent. A few leaf beetles were 

 eaten regularly (1.22 per cent) and darkling beetles were taken in small num- 

 bers (1.40 per cent). Miscellaneous matter (1.63 per cent) consisted of a 

 scarabaeid, a firefly, four click beetles, and a few longicorns and buprestids. 

 Lepidoptera (4.3 per cent) were well represented by caterpillars taken by 16 

 birds, and a moth and a pupal case in one instance each. Hymenoptera com- 

 posed of ants, wasps, and wild bees comprise 2.44 per cent, and flies 0.22 per 

 cent. Forty birds had eaten spiders and one a scorpion, which come to 31.67 

 per cent. Miscellaneous matter, largely vertebrate, amounts to 1.06 per cent. 

 Small tree toads were secured three times and one little lizard was eaten. 



With the exception of spiders, which form a little less than one-third of the 

 food, and a few vertebrates, the animals destroyed by the Porto Rican oriole 

 are in the main harmful species. In searching through the trees the bird 

 secures numerous scarred-snout beetles and other weevils, a group which con- 

 tains some of the most serious pests of the region. Grasshoppers, roaches, 

 crickets, and caterpillars are taken in numbers. The oriole is one of the bene- 

 ficial birds frequenting coffee plantations and, having abundant shelter and 

 building inaccessible nests, the bird will continue to hold its own. 



The following were determined in the stomachs examined : 



EUPLEX.OPTERA. 



Phaulex albipes 1 



ORTHOPTERA. 



Orocharis sp 1 



Anurogryllus muticus '. 1 



Scapteriscus didactylus 4 



HEMIPTERA. 



Proarno hilaris 3 



Lecanium sp 1 



COLEOPTERA. 



Europs apicalis 1 



Photinus glaucus 1 



Cryptocephalus sp 3 



coleoptera — continued. 



Hetachroma sp 2 



Metachroma lituratum 1 



Coptocycla signifera 1 



Platydema sp 4 



Helops sp l 



Diaprepes spengleri 3 



Lachnopus sp 11 



Euscepes porcellus 3 



Hetamasius hemipterus 1 



HYMENOPTERA. 



Solenopsis geminata 1 



VERTEBRATA. 



Eleutherodactylus sp 3 



Anolis sp 1 



TROUPIAL. Icterus icterus (Linnceus). 

 Trupial. 



Gundlach (1878, p. 209) notes the troupial, an exotic species, as naturalized 

 near Quebradillas, and says that its food consists of various wild fruits and the 



