60. USEFUL BIRDS. 
examined, and much has been done in observing the feed- 
ing habits of birds in the field. The work in economic orni- 
thology performed by Merriam, Fisher, Barrows, Beal, and 
Judd is of great value. Its results rank above those of 
all other similar investigations, and must be considered as 
authoritative. ; 
Professor Beal found in the stomach of a Yellow-billed 
Cuckoo two hundred and seventeen fall webworms, and in 
another two hundred and fifty American tent caterpillars. 
Two Flickers were found to have eaten respectively three 
thousand and five thousand ants. Sixty grasshoppers were 
found in the stomach of a Nighthawk. 
Professor Harvey found five hundred mosquitoes in a 
Nighthawk’s stomach. In this case the insects must have 
been fully grown, as the larve of the mosquito are found 
mainly in water, and the Nighthawk takes its food on the 
wing. The stomach of this useful bird is much larger in pro- 
portion to its size than that of most other birds; but sev- 
enty-five hundred seeds of the yellow wood sorre! had been 
eaten by a Mourning Dove, sixty-four hundred by another, 
and ninety-two hundred seeds, chiefly of weeds, were found 
in another. Here we have twenty-three thousand one hun- 
dred seeds, mostly those of weeds, eaten at a meal by three 
birds. Probably where these large numbers are given, the 
result is approximate, and is arrived at by counting a part 
of the contents for a measure, and from this estimating the 
rest in bulk. 
Dr. Judd says that the stomachs of four Bank Swallows 
contained, all together, just two hundred ants, and that a 
Nighthawk has been known to eat one thousand at a single 
meal. He speaks of seventeen hundred seeds of weeds hav- 
ing been taken at one feeding by a Bob-white; three thou- 
sand leguminoug seeds were found in the stomach of another, 
and no less than five thousand seeds of pigeon grass were 
taken from a third. Dr. Warren has taken twenty-eight 
cutworms from the stomach of a Red-winged Blackbird. 
Stomachs of Snowflakes have each contained from five 
hundred to fifteen hundred seeds of amaranth. Professor 
Forbes found in the stomachs of seven Cedar Birds a number 
