No. 2.] Reprints and Miscellaneous Notes. 89 



foremost rank in this enumeration, but for the fact that it is restricted 

 to two months of the year. 



The fact that the Lachnosterna season coincides with the breed- 

 ing period of the Crow deserves to be emphasized, and the prin- 

 cipal, but by no means exclusive, insect food of the nestlings may 

 thus be said to consist of these Lachnosternas. 



Lachnosternas are above ground only at night, when they feed 

 on the foliage of trees and shrubs ; they hide during the day under 

 ground. In determining the economic status of the Crow as an 

 insectivorous bird it would seem to be of some importance to ascer- 

 tain how and where the birds find these beetles. It may be that 

 only those are eaten which during their nocturnal flight had been 

 half eaten by bats and other nocturnal enemies of Lachnosterna or 

 which had been otherwise disabled ; or it may be that only those 

 specimens are eaten which have fallen into lakes or streams during 

 the night and which are then washed ashore in a drowned or half- 

 drowned condition ; finally, it may be that the Crows are able to 

 discover and to dig out the beetles during the day from their sub* 

 terranean retreats. No direct observations on these points seem 

 to have been made, but I have no hesitation in accepting the latter 

 alternative, for the reason that it is an undeniable fact that the 

 Crows find an enormous number of other insects that hide during the 

 day under sticks, clods of earth, and other objects {e.g., many of 

 the Carabidse), or in the ground at the base of plants {e.g., the 

 Curculionidae presently to be mentioned). Many of the roprophagous 

 insects, and more especially the genera Copris and Geotrypes, are 

 evidently dug out from their holes beneath cattle and horse dungs. 

 This, of course, does not entirely exclude the other alternatives, and 

 in fact, the often recurring presence of small ants in the stomachs 

 seems to indicate that the Crows also pick up dead or wounded Lach ■ 

 nosternas which are frequently covered with ants. 



Larvae of Lachnosterna (white grubs) were, contrary to expecta- 

 tion, met with in a comparatively small number of stomachs (about 

 20 in all, including a few where determination is doubtful), all cf 

 which were collected in the District of Columbia and adjacent parts 

 of Maryland during the months of April and May. If a larger num- 

 ber of stomachs from other localities could have been examined, it is 

 possible that white grubs would play a more important role in the 

 food habits of the Crow. The absence of Lachnosterna larvae in all 

 stomachs collected during the fall ploughing season is easily ex- 

 plained by the great abundance of grosshoppers at this season. 

 The few Scarabaeid larvae found in stomachs collected in the fall 

 all belong to coprophagous species. 



