29 
attractive plumage the birds are highly prized for ladies’ hats; and 
consequently have been shot in season and out, till the wonder is not 
that there are so few, but that any remain at all. 
When the Colorado potato beetle first swept over the land, and nat- 
uralists and farmers were anxious to discover whether or not there were 
any enemies which would prey upon the pest, the grosbeak was almost 
the only bird seen to eat the beetles. Further observation confirmed 
the fact, and there can be no reasonable doubt that where the bird is 
abundant it has contributed very much to the abatement of the pest 
which has been noted during the last decade. But this is not the only 
good which the bird does, for many other noxious insects besides the 
pctato beetle are also eaten. 
The vegetable food of the grosbeak consists of buds and blossoms of 
forest trees, and seeds, but the only damage of which it has been 
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Fia. 15.—Rose-breasted grosbeak. 
accused is the stealing of green peas. The writer has observed it eat- 
ing peas and has examined the stomachs of several that had been 
killed in the very act. The stomachs contained a few peas and enough 
potato beetles, old and young, as well as other harmful insects, to pay 
for all the peas the birds would be likely to eat in a whole season. 
The garden where this took place adjoined a small potato field which 
earlier in the season had been so badly infested with the beetles that 
the vines were completely riddled. The grosbeaks visited the field 
every day, and finally brought their fledged young. The young birds 
stood in a row on the topmost rail of the fence and were fed with the 
beetles which their parents gathered. When a careful inspection was 
made a few days later, not a beetle, old or young, could be found; the 
birds had swept them from the field and saved the potatoes. 
