VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAN. 61 



of cankerworms varying from seventy to one hundred and 

 one each, the number found in most cases avei'aging nearly 

 one hundred for each bird. 



A Ruffed Grouse, killed in winter, had in its crop twelve 

 leaves of sheep laurel and four hundred and thirty-five buds 

 and bits of branches, all taken for its morning meal. The 

 crop of another contained over five hundred buds and twigs. 

 As these birds eat such food both at morning and at night, it 

 would seem that they must require daily, for these two meals 

 alone, between eight hundred and one thousand buds and 

 twigs. 1 



The following notes, received from Professor Beal since 

 the above was written, are of great interest : — 



From the stomach of a Franklin's Gull (Larus franklinii) there were 

 taken seventy entire grasshoppers and the jaws of fifty-six more ; from 

 another, ninety grasshoppers and one hundred and two additional jaws ; 

 from another, forty-eight grasshoppers and seventy more jaws ; and still 

 another contained sixty-seven grasshoppers. Another stomach of this 

 species contained sixty-eight crickets. These grasshoppers and crickets 

 were each more than one inch in length. We examined the stomach 

 of a Franklin's Gull which contained three hundred and twenty-seven 

 entire nymphs of dragon flies, each three-fourths of an inch in length. 

 In the stomach of a -Cliff Swallow were found one hundred entire 

 beetles (Aphodius ' inquinatus) , with remains of others. These insects 

 are a little more than three-eighths of an inch in length. We are now 

 examining birds' stomachs from Texas, and from the stomach of a Yel- 

 low-billed Cuckoo were taken the remains of eighty-two caterpillars 

 that originally were from one to one and a half inches in length. From 

 another stomach were taken eighty-six, and from forty to sixty from 

 several others. 



All evidence acquired by observation as to the amount of 

 food eaten by wild birds at liberty must perforce be frag- 

 mentary, for such observation is necessarily limited to brief 

 periods. The difficulties attending such work make its re- 

 sults somewhat uncertain and unsatisfactorv ; nevertheless, 



ft V J 3 



some information as to the quantity of food eaten by wild 

 birds may be obtained in this way. Vultures are said to so 

 gorge themselves that they are unable to fly. I have known 



* Birds in their Relation to Man, liy Clarence M. Weed and Ned Dearborn, 

 1903, p. 62. 



