32 
depredations are confined to trees on which the fruit ripens earliest, 
while later varieties are comparatively untouched. This is probably 
owing to the fact that when wild fruits ripen they are preferred to cher- 
ries, and really constitute the bulk of the cedar bird’s diet. 
In 152 stomachs examined animal matter formed only 13 and vegeta 
ble 87 per cent, showing that the bird is not wholly a fruit eater. With 
the exception of a few snails, all the animal food consisted of insects, 
mainly beetles—and all but one more or less noxious, the famous elm 
leaf-beetle being among the number. Bark or scale lice were found 
in several stomachs, while the remainder of the animal food was made 
up of grasshoppers, bugs, and the like. Three nestlings were found to 
have been fed almost entirely on insects. 
Of the 87 per cent of vegetable food, 74 consisted entirely of wild 
fruit or seeds and 13 of cultivated fruit, but a large part of the latter 
OG Uh Py 
2 SO. 
Tie 
Fig. 17.—Cedar bird. 
was made up of blackberries and raspberries, and it is very doubtful 
whether they represented cultivated varieties. Cherry stealing is the 
chief complaint against this bird, but of the 152 stomachs only 9, all 
taken in June and July, contained any remains of cultivated cherries, 
and these aggregate but 5 per cent of the year’s food. As 41 stomachs 
were collected in those months, it is evident that the birds do not live 
to any great extent on cultivated cherries. 
Although the cherry bird is not a great insect destroyer, it does some 
good work in this way, since it probably rears its young mostly upon 
Insect food. On the other hand, it does not devour nearly as mucb 
cultivated fruit as has been asserted, and most, if not all, of the damage 
cal be prevented. The bird should theretore be considered a useful 
species, aud as such should be accorded all possible protection. 
