1 68 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I9O4. 



the insect contents. * * * The insects that constitute the 

 great bulk of the food of the king bird are noxious species, 

 largely beetles — May beetles, click beetles (the larvae of which 

 are known as wire Worms), weevils, which prey upon fruit and 

 grain, and a host of others. * * * There is hardly a more 

 useful species about the farm than the phoebe, and it should 

 receive every encouragement. * * * In his insect food the 

 crow makes amends for his sins in the rest of his dietary. 

 * * * June bugs, and others of the same family constitute 

 the principal food during spring and early summer, and are fed 

 to the young in immense quantities. * * * Grasshoppers 

 are first taken in May, but not in large numbers until August, 

 when, as might be expected, they form the leading article of diet. 

 This shows that the crow is no exception to the general rule that 

 most birds subsist, to a large extent, upon grasshoppers in the 

 month of August. * * * May is the month when the 

 dreaded cutworm begins its deadly career, and then the meadow- 

 lark does some of its best work. * * * Observation both 

 in the field and laboratory shows that caterpillars constitute the 

 largest item of the fare of the oriole." 



Among the other insect-eating birds discussed in this same 

 bulletin are the mourning dove, the jays, the bobolink, the black 

 birds, the sparrows, the grosbeaks, the swallows, the cedarbird, 

 the catbird, the brown thrasher, the chickadee (that does much 

 good by eating the eggs of tent caterpillars), and the robin. 



"The Baltimore oriole and the English sparrow have been seen 

 feeding upon the caterpillars of the brown-tail moth and the 

 latter bird also attacks the moths." * 



"Thirty-eight species of birds have been identified when feed- 

 ing upon the gypsy moth in one or more of its forms." J 



* Mass. State Board of Agriculture. Bulletin of Information. The Brown-tail 

 Moth. 1S98. 



t Mass. Board of Agriculture. Tne Gypsy Moth. 1896. 



