FOOD HABITS. 45 



but expeiiments indicated that they may eat them in greater numbers 

 when opportunity oflFers. Five tobacco worms {Phlegethontius 

 sexta), two-thirds grown, placed in a cage with three captive bob- 

 whites, July 8, 1903, were devoured in less than two minutes. Cab- 

 bage worms {Pontia rapn) and cutworms also were offered and 

 greedily eaten. 



I.IST OF CATERPILLARS EATEN. 



Army worm (HeVnpliila iinipiiiictii)- Yello\5' bear caterpillar (Diacrisia vir- 



Cutworm (Agrotis sp.). ginica). 



Cutworm (Feltia annexa). Pyralid (Tholeria revrrsalis). 



Noctuid moth (yoctuidw). Purslane sphinx (Deilephila gallii). 



Cotton worm (AJahainu argillarca ) . Southern tobacco worm (Phlegethon- 



Cotton bollworm (BeliotMg obsoleta). tins sc.rta). 



Striped garden caterpillar (JJaiiestra Caterpillar (Jnnonia cosnia). 



legitima). Pupa (Vanessa sp.). 



Miscellaneous Animal Food. 



Insects of several orders not previously mentioned make up 0.70 

 per cent of the food of the bobwhite. They include hymenopterous 

 insects, such as ants {Laninn sp., Tctrainorium c(t'>ipituiii^ GuinpoiKitus 

 pennsylvanifus) ; gall flies {Cipiipida'), which produce bladderlike 

 growths on plants; in rare instances parasitic wasps {Tiphia inor- 

 nata and Proctotrypes rufipes) ; crane flies. May flies, and sometimes 

 true flies, like the green fly (Lufilla cfvudr) and the robber fly 

 {AsilidcB). The animal food of the bird includes other orders 

 besides insects. The greater part of this is spiders, chiefly ground 

 spiders, with a few harvest spiders (Phalangidce) . The common 

 thousand leg {Jnhjs sp.) sometimes contributes to the food, as it 

 often does to that of many species of song birds. Snails are more 

 often taken. Among these Pupa arm if era and the pond snail {Suc- 

 cinea arara) have been identified. The little fresh- water lobster 

 called crayfish {Camharus) had furnished the major course for 4 

 out of 15 birds shot by collectors for S. A. Forbes in Illinois. 

 Manipulation of these biting crustaceans would appear to be difficult 

 for a bird no larger than bobwhite. The queerest food eaten is the 

 toad. B. H. Warren reported Florida birds as feeding on small 

 batrachians (probably young toads), and laboratory examination of 

 Florida birds showed in one case a tiny toad. It is fortunate that 

 this habit of bobwhite is not general, since the toad is useful and 

 destroys great numbers of insects. 



Food of the Young. 



During the breeding season a third of the food of adult bobwhites 

 consists of insects, while their young, like those of practically all other 

 land birds, consume a much greater proportion of insect food than 



