No. 2.] Reprints and Miscellaneous Notes. 93 



enormous abundance in the excrement of horses, cattle, etc., or in 

 dead animals. Imagos of these Diptera were found only in excep- 

 tional instances. 



Crickets (Gryllidae). — Excepting the Acridiidae, the whole order 

 of Orthoptera is very poorly represented ; the only other repre- 

 sentatives which occur in a moderate number of stomachs are ground 

 crickets of the genera Gryllus and Nemobius. 



The orders hitherto omitted, viz.^ the Homoptera and Neuroptera 

 (in the old sense), are so poorly represented as to deserve no special 

 mention. The same may be said of the order Myriapoda, of which 

 a few specimens of a Julus were found. 



In order to complete this picture of the food habits of the Crow, 

 it is important to mention briefly those families, or even single 

 species, of insects which are of economic importance, being either 

 injurious or beneficial, but which were not found in the stomachs 

 examined. Only such insects are mentioned here as occur on or 

 near the ground and of which one might expect that the Crows, at 

 least occasionally, would pick up specimens. Some of the orders 

 or families unrepresented or but poorly represented, have been 

 mentioned before, and are not here repeated. 



Among the Coleoptera the absence of the useful ladybirds (Cocci- 

 nellidae ) deserves special mention (only in a single elytron of one 

 species has been found). Still more striking is the absence of the 

 large family of leaf beetles ( Chrysomelidae) including the notorious 

 Colorado potato beetle {Doryphora 10 — lineata). In fact, only 

 four species of Chrysomelidae were found in all the stomachs ( two 

 elytra of Paria canella, one elytron of Colaspis brunnea, and a few 

 specimens of the aquatic Donacia flavipes). Chrysomeiid larvse 

 are entirely absent. Finally, the soldier beetles of the genera 

 Chauliognathus and Telephorus in the family Lampyridae are not 

 represented, and only two larvae of a Telephorus were found in a 

 single stomach. 



In the Hymenoptera no injurious (Phytophagic ) families are 

 represented, but on the other hand, the immense host of beneficial 

 (parasitic) species is also almost entirely absent, only a few isolated 

 specimens having been found. The Crow is not one of the des- 

 troyers of the honey-bee, for only a single bee occurred in all 

 stomachs. 



In the Lepidoptera, which practically do not contain any beneficial 

 species, the absence of all cabbage worms larvae of ( Pieris rapas, 

 Plusia brassier, etc.), excepting a solitary specimen, deserves 



h 



