POOD OP SOME WELL-KNOWN BIRDS. 31 



able to find insects all the year round, while the eastern one gets 

 very few during the winter. The largest item of insect food is 

 // Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets), which constitute 43 per cent 

 of the stomach contents in the western bird and 39 pet cent in 

 the eastern one. They are eaten in every month of the year and in 

 August and September reach nearly 70 per cent. Ordinary grass- 

 hoppers form the great bulk of this item of food, but a good many 

 crickets are eaten, especially the brown and striped so-called " wood 

 crickets." One group of these is especially noticeable — a group of 

 large soft-bodied monsters of the genus StenopeJmntus, many of 

 which live under dead leaves, stones, and rubbish and do not often 

 voluntarity show themselves by the light of day. 



Beetles collectively are second in importance in the butcher bird's 

 Insect food, amounting to 16 per cent for the western bird and some- 

 what more for the eastern. Of these about 7 per cent are ground 

 beetles (Carabidse) and carrion beetles (Silphidse), and the re- 

 mainder are harmful species. Most of the beetles eaten are the large 

 species, but the butcher, bird does not disdain small game, and a 

 number of small leaf beetles and weevils were noted. Ants and 

 wasps amount to a little more than 11 per cent in the food of the 

 western subspecies and 3 per cent in that of the eastern one. In 

 both, wasps far outnumber ants. Moths and caterpillars amount to 

 7 per cent for the western bird and 4 per cent for the eastern one. 

 One western stomach was entirely filled with the remains of 15 moths, 

 a most unusual occurrence, for adult Lepidoptera are but sparingly 

 eaten by birds. Bugs and flies are eaten occasionally. In one 

 stomach remains of robber flies (Asilidse) were detected. These two 

 orders and a few other odd insects constitute 5 per cent of the food. 

 Spiders and several kindred creatures form 2 per cent of the food 

 of the western form, but though not eaten in any great quantities 

 they appear in a good many stomachs. In one stomach was found 

 one of those bristly and uncanny monstrosities of the animal world 

 known as jointed spiders (Solpugida). The lingual ribbon of a 

 snail was found in one stomach, and bits of what appeared to be the 

 limbs of small crustaceans in several. In the eastern form, spiders 

 amount to 4 per cent of the food. The vertebrate part of the butcher 

 bird's food amounts to 12 per cent for the western bird and 28 per 

 cent for the eastern one. It is made up of remains of mammals, 

 birds, and reptiles. Of these, mammals, in the shape of mice and 

 sometimes shrews, are by far the most numerous, and form a very 

 important item in the diet of the eastern bird but less so in case of 

 the western one. Comparatively few birds are taken. The reptiles 

 are mostly lizards eaten by the western shrike. 



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