22 GUCKOOS AND SHRIKES IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. 
has observed the loggerhead impale snakes on a barbed-wire fence. 
At times loggerheads feed upon fish. The stomach of a bird killed in 
Utah on a cold winter’s day contained nothing but minnow’s bones; 
and Bachman speaks of the shrike’s impaling fish that have been left 
by fishermen. 
INSECTS EATEN BY THE LOGGERHEAD. 
The larger part of the insect food of this shrike consists of Orthoptera 
(grasshoppers and crickets), and the remainder is principally beetles. 
In summer, when grasshoppers are abundant, the loggerhead does not 
seem to attack birds. The fact that in time of plenty more insects are 
killed and impaled than can be utilized indicates that the percentage 
of these pests destroyed is much greater than the laboratory examina- 
tions show. The same statement would not hold good in the case of 
the destruction of birds, because during cold weather when birds are 
killed there is a scarcity of food, and all the spoils of the chase are 
probably utilized. Grasshoppers and crickets were found in three- 
fourths of the stomachs examined, and 14 of the 88 shrikes had fed 
exclusively upon these pests. Most of the Orthoptera eaten are grass- 
hoppers, though some crickets are taken. Most of the grasshoppers 
found in stomach contents are flying species, among which have been 
noted the dust-colored Dissosteira carolina which, when rising from the 
road, shows beautiful yellow underwings, and the red-legged grass- 
hopper (Melanoplus femur-rubrum) which is so conspicuous in hay fields. 
The pellucid grasshopper (Camnula atrox), which is somewhat migra- 
tory, is frequently captured, and also an ugly grasshopper (Hippiscus). 
In Arizona Dr. Horn has seen loggerheads catch grasshoppers and 
impale them on cactus spines. One of the largest insects devoured by 
this bird is a sand cricket, the so-called Idaho devil. The mole cricket, 
likewise a large insect, is attacked and eaten by the shrikes of the 
southeastern United States. The fact that they take these enormous 
insects shows that whatever food becomes available in any locality is 
generally utilized. : 
Beetles and their larvis are found in about one-fourth of the 
stomachs, and constitute 20 per cent of the bulk of the food. Most of 
the beetles are eaten in spring before grasshoppers become abundant. 
Half the beetles and their larvie destroyed are useful carnivorous 
species that prey upon insect pests. Some of the largest of these 
beneficial beetles have been found stuck upon the splinters of the 
Stump of a felled tree. There were taken from one loggerhead’s 
stomach 112 jaws of the larvie of a large predaceous beetle, and from 
another stomach the remains of the useful tiger beetle. It is probable 
that the killing of useful beetles is more detrimental to agricultural 
interests than the destruction of birds. Although half the beetles 
eaten are beneficial, most of the others are injurious. Among this 
latter class may be mentioned large, bright-colored, wood-boring bee- 
