FOOD HABITS. 43 



21, 1903, reports that an observer at Seymour, Ind., found a teaspoon- 

 ful in a crop. In a letter to the Department of Agriculture, M. A. 

 Page, of Garnett, Ivans., says of a bobwhite: " On opening the crop 

 we found about two tablespoonfuls of chinch bugs." 



The bobwhite also destroys the false chinch bug (;V//.s/(^v aii'/nxtd- 

 tun), which attacks grapes, strawberries, apples, potatoes, turnips, 

 radishes, beets, and cabbages. It eats the tarnished plant bug {Lyt/ii.s 

 pratemh), injurious to fruit and truck crops, and stink bugs of more 

 than a dozen species, one {EiiKrliistux nnriolarinx) being a pest on 

 many garden vegetables. The noninjurious species, particularly 

 Thyanta custator, are often eaten, one bird containing 30 of them. 

 More Homoptera (leaf hoppers and other forms) are eaten by bob- 

 white than by most other birds. The little leaf hopper ( Oneometopia 

 lateralis) is especially relished. 



LIST OF BUGS EATEN. 



Heteboptera : Heteropteba — Continued. 



Blissus leiicopterus (chinch bug). Crftius deliiis. 



Xycius angustatus (false chinch Peribalus limdolariiis. 



bug). Lygufi pratensis (tarnished plant 



Euschifttus tristigmiis (three-spotted bug). 



soldier bug). Corirnelcnna sp. 



Etischistus varioldrius. Apiomerus crassipes. 



Euschistus sp. Alydns ewinus. 



Podisus sp. C'orhus sp. 



Brochymena sp. Euthoctha galeatoi: 



Nezara hilat-is. ,SciiteUciidir (shield-baclred bugs). 



Monnidca lugens. Homoptera : 



Hymenarcys nervosa. Oncometopia lateralis. 



Hymenarcys irqiialis. Oncometopia sp. 



Thyanta custator. Deltoeephalus sp. 



CEbalus pugnax. Diedrocephala sp. 

 Trichopepla semicittata. 



GKASStlOPPEBS AND ALLIED INSECTS EATEN. 



Grasshoppers with a few crickets make 3.71 per cent of the yearly 

 food. In September they contribute 11.9 per cent. The walking 

 stick, singularly like a twig and at times very numerous and injuri- 

 ous to foliage of shade and forest trees, has been found in the stomach 

 of the bobwhite. Locusts and meadow grasshoppers, both highly 

 destructive to vegetation, are favorite articles of diet. The bird 

 grasshopper, so called from its size, is occasionally eaten. The de- 

 structive grasshoppers or locusts of the genus Mehmophifi, such as 

 M. atlanis, M. femur-ruhrum, or the red-legged grasshopper, and the 

 Hocky Mountain locust, form the bulk of the orthopterous food of 

 the species. The Rocky Mountain locust is one of the ATorst of insect 

 pests, and its appearance in large numbers is a calamity. Tl appears 

 in swarms, clouding the sun and covering the earth, sweeping every 



