88 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. IV. 



throughout the fall they constitute by far the greatest part of the 

 insect food, often occurring in astonishing numbers, and often forming 

 the only insect food. Grasshoppers are also largely picked up in 

 winter, evidently on warm days and when there is no snow on the 

 ground. 



2. Dung-beetles. — Under this heading the following Coleoptera 

 are comprised : Species of Silpha and Hister^ the Scarabaeid, 

 genera Copris onthophagus, Aphodtus, and allied genera. 

 Certain species of Staphylinus are also included here, which, 

 although insectivorus, confine their operations to the droppings 

 of domestic animals. Dung-inhabiting dipterous larvae or their 

 pupae were, however, met with in only a few stomach<^, and the 

 same may be said of the larvae of dung-beetles. A larger or 

 smaller number of these dung-beetles, and more especially of 

 the scarabaeid genera just mentioned, or at least single speci- 

 mens thereof, occur in most of the stomachs from all localities 

 and throughout the whole year, and in many instances com- 

 prise the greater bulk of the insect food. 



3. Ground-beetles (Carabidae). — These occur likewise in the vast 

 majority of stomachs from all localities and throughout the year, 

 and the list of the species thus found is a very extended one. The 

 genera most frequently present are : Calosoma, Carabus^ Chiasmus, 

 PterostichuSf Harpalus, and Anisodactylus. It will be noted, how- 

 ever, that none of the species are ever represented by any consider- 

 able number of specimens in a single stomach. Thus the bulk 

 represented by the Carabidae is much inferior to that of the grass- 

 hoppers and May beetles, and probably also smaller than that of the 

 dung-beetles. Carabidous larvae were found only in two or three 

 isolated instances. 



4. May beetles (Lachnosterna). — During a short period of the 

 year, commencing, in the latitude of Washington, D.C., at the end 

 of April, and in Maine and Michigan about a fortnight later, and 

 extending towards the end of June, these beetles furnish, as regards 

 bulk, number of specimens, and frequency of occurrence, the prin- 

 cipal insect food of the Crow. In fact, there are only a few stomachs 

 during this season that do not contain traces of Lachnosternas, 

 while frequently large numbers of specimens are found in a single 

 stomach, and this often to the exclusion of other insect food. This 

 habit prevails throughout the whole region,^ and would occupy the 



• Even the single stomach from Kansas, collected in May (No. 15249), contaii.s nothing 

 except a number of Lachnosternas. 



