12. GUCKOOS AND SHRIKES IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. 
which, it may be added, is one of the most disgusting in odor. This 
was probably the most useful insect that the birds had eaten. “Scara- 
beide were somewhat more numerous than other beetles. The most 
noticeable of these was the goldsmith beetle (Cotalpa lanigera), which 
was found in 3 instances—6 specimens in one stomach and 3 in each 
of the others. Two stomachs contained each 2 specimens of the 
Colorado potato beetle (Doryphora 10-lineata), Elateride, Buprestida, 
Tenebrionide, Cerambycide, Lampyrida, and a few Rhynchophora, or 
snout beetles, were also found. Among the latter was 1 specimen of 
the rice weevil (Calandra oryze). Altogether beetles constitute a little 
more than 6 percent of the year’s food. 
BUGS (HEMIPTERA). 
Hemiptera, or bugs, are represented by cicadas, pentatomids, and a 
few others. The great bulk is made up of cicadas, or dog-day harvest. 
flies, which seem to be a favorite article of food, as no less than 5 were 
found in one stomach and 4 in another. Stink-bugs (Pentatomide) 
were found in quite a number of stomachs, but not in large quantities. 
A few assassin bugs (Ieduviider) were also detected. No Hemiptera 
were contained in the stomachs collected in January, but in the May 
stomachs they amount to 12 percent, and do not vary much until 
after August, when they begin to disappear. They amount to about 
64 percent of the food of the year. 
GRASSHOPPERS (ORTHOPTERA). 
The Orthoptera eaten by the cuckoos consist of common grass- 
hoppers, katydids, and tree crickets. The common grasshoppers are 
evidently favorites, as is the case with so many other birds. Several 
stomachs contained from 10 to 20 of these insects—a good meal for so 
small a bird. Katydids and their eggs were found in many stomachs, 
and often several individuals in a single stomach, The snowy tree 
cricket (Gcanthus nircus) is another insect that would seem naturally 
to fall in their way, and which their stomachs prove that they often 
eat. Orthoptera collectively were found in 86 of the 155 stomachs 
examined, and constitute about 30 percent of the year’s food. Begin- 
ning with about 3 percent in May, they increase to over 43 percent in 
July, and do not fall much below this point during the remainder of 
the year. 
CATERPILLARS. 
Nearly half of the yearly food (48.5 percent) consists of caterpillars, 
which were found in 129, ov 83 percent, of the 155 stomachs examined. 
The stomach taken in January contained 15 percent; in May the per- 
centage rose to 60; in July and August it fell off a little to make room 
for grasshoppers, and in September reached the maximum of 75. 
One of the most conspicuous and interesting of these larve is the 
