POOD OP SOME WELL-KNOWN BIEDS. 29 



the other months rising barely above 1 per cent. The most oi; th.em 

 are ants with a less number of wasps and bees and a few parasitic 

 species. Hemiptera amount to one-half of 1 per cent and were 

 found in 11 stomachs, of which 5 contained black olive scales. The 

 others were stink bugs, leafhoppers, and tree-hoppers. Caterpillars 

 are the largest item of animal food and aggregate about 3.5 per cent. 

 Most of them were eaten in July, when they constituted 37.5 per 

 cent of the food./ 



Vegetable food. — Fruit amounts to 4.5 per cent. It consists of 

 elderberries, blackberries or raspberries, figs, and cherries. In Cali- 

 fornia this bird has been accused of eating buds from fruit trees to 

 an injurious extent, but nothing was found in the stomachs to sub- 

 stantiate this charge. Grain aggregated 8.6 per cent, and was found 

 in G9 stomachs, as follows: Oats in 56, wheat in 7, barley in 5, and 

 corn in 1. It was mostly eaten in the three winter months, and so 

 had no pecuniary value. Only 3.5 per cent was taken in March, 

 which would indicate that not much was taken from newly sown 

 fields. 



Like many others of the. sparrow family, the white-crown subsists 

 largely upon weed seed, which is eaten freely in every month and 

 amounts to 74 per cent of the annual food. Over 90 per cent of all 

 the stomachs contained weed seed, and one was entirely filled with it. 

 Over 30 species were identified, and several stomachs contained as 

 many as 9 different species. The favorite variety appears to be the 

 rough pigweed {Amaranthus retroflexus) , which was found in 208 

 stomachs. 



Summary. — Neither the farmer nor the fruit grower has much to 

 fear from the white-crowned sparrow. On the contrary, the bird 

 destroys some harmful insects and a vast number of seeds of noxious 

 weeds. The fruit eaten is mostly wild and the grain either waste or 

 volunteer. There is very little to substantiate the accusation that 

 the bird destroys fruit buds. — F. E. L. B. 



SOUTHERN BUTCHER BIRD. 



(Lanius ludovicianiis.) 



The southern butcher bird (fig. 14) , or loggerhead shrike, in some 

 of its numerous forms, is found over much of the United States and 

 is especially common on the Pacific coast. All the forms retire 

 southward at the approach of winter and in many localities are 

 replaced during the cold season by the northern butcher bird (Z. 

 horealis), which comes down from the north and winters in the 

 United States. The butcher bird resembles a bird of prey in form 

 of beak and to a certain extent in food habits, but has no such talons ■ 

 as enable the true birds of prey to seize their victim and hold it 



306 



