SPECIES. 



99 



Thirty swallows, collected between the middle of May and the middle 

 of August, had eaten nothing but insects. Parasitic wasps and bees 

 formed 2 percent of their food (less than usual with aerial feeders), 

 bugs 3 percent, May-flies 8 percent, beetles 13 percent, white ants 21 

 percent, ants 33 percent, and miscellaneous insects, principally flies 

 with a few bugs, 20 percent. The forms selected were bees of the 

 family Andrenidw, and parasitic wasps of the families ScoliidsB, Ich- 

 neumonidEe, and Chalcididse. The beetle food was interesting, for 

 besides click-beetles, dung-beetles {Apiiodhis inquinattis, Ilistei-, Atas- 

 nius, and Onthojjhagus jxinuHylvanicus)^ weevils of several species, 

 and metallic woodborers (Agrilus), it included the engraver beetles 

 (among them Tomicus cacogrcqjhus)^ which are destroyed by only 

 few other birds. The food of swallows is peculiar in its lack of 

 caterpillars and grasshoppers, which are so important to the subsist- 

 ence of other birds. As with flycatchers, the number of flies taken 

 is generally overestimated. In the stomachs examined were found 

 snipe-flies (Leptidee), golden-green flesh-flies (LuciMa csesar), and other 

 muscidse, with an occasional banded-winged horse-fly {Ohrysoi)s). 



CEDAR BIRDS. 



The cedar bird {Ampelis cedrorxim^ fig. 37) is the most frugivorous 

 of the Marshall Hall birds. More than four-fifths of its food was 



Fig. 37.— Cedar bird. 



fruit, the remainder insects. Though often troublesome elsewhere, 

 it does no harm here, and accomplishes sOme good through its slightly 

 insectivorous habit. Five stomachs were collected in May. One con- 

 tained cherries, one mulberries, and a third smilax berries. Insects 

 (locust leaf -mining beetles and May-flies) were found in three. 



