62 FOOD OF BOBOLINK, BLACKBIRDS, AND GRACKLES. 
if other fodd be wanting. They may thus be eaten more from necessity 
than from choice. It does not, however, necessarily follow that birds 
are doing harm by eating insects that on account of their food habits 
are classed as useful. This point has been fully elucidated by other 
writers, notably by Prof. 8. A. Forbes.’ 
Next in importance to beetles as an article of blackbird diet are 
the grasshoppers. For convenience, grasshoppers, locusts (green 
grasshoppers), and crickets are considered in the same category, but 
of the three the true grasshoppers were by far the most numerous in 
the stomachs, and are eaten in every month except January. They 
constitute less than 1 percent of the total February food, and the fact 
that they are found at all in this month indicates that the birds are keen 
hunters, for it would puzzle an entomologist to find grasshoppers in 
February in most of the Northern States. It is probable that some 
of those eaten in this and the succeeding month are dead insects, left 
over from the previous year. The proportion of grasshoppers in the 
stomachs increases with each month up to August, when it attains a 
maximum of 23.4 percent of all the food. It is worthy of note that 
crickets, considered apart from grasshoppers, reach their maximum in 
June, when they form a little more than 5 percent of the monthly food. 
After August the grasshopper diet falls off, but even in November 
it still constitutes 9 percent of the total for the month. The fre- 
quency with which these insects appear in the stomachs, the great 
numbers found in single stomachs (often more than 30), and the 
fact that they are fed largely to the young, all point to the conclusion 
that they are preferred as an article of food, and are eagerly sought at 
all times. The good that is done hy their destruction can hardly be 
verestimated, particularly as many of the grasshoppers found in the 
mach were females filled with eges. 
Caterpillars form another interesting element of this bird’s food. 
‘Yhey were found throughout the year, except in November, and aver- 
age 2.3 percent in each month. In May a maximum of something 
more than 8 percent is reached, followed by a little less than + per- 
cent in June, and falling below this through the remainder of the year. 
The famous army worm (Levernda unipunctd) was identified in about 
half w dozen stomachs. 
Most persons who have picked and eaten berries from the bushes 
haye had the disagrecable experience of getting into their mouths a 
small bug which is a little too highly flavored to suit the taste of the 
human race, but which is eaten by the crow blackbird in every month 
from February to October, inclusive. These bugs are not, however, 
consumed in large quantities, probably for the reason that great num- 
bers ean not be found; still, traces of them appear in many stomachs, 
indicating that the birds eat as many as they find. 
Bull. IML. State Lah. Nat. Hlist., Vol. I, No. 3, Nov., 1880. 
