\ THE BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE. 71 
Its food habits have received but brief consideration from ornitholog- 
ical writers. Audubon, whose account is apparently the best, says: 
The food of this species consists principally of those small crabs called ‘fiddlers,’ 
of which millions are found along the margins of the rivers and mud-flats, as well as 
of large insects of all kinds, ground-worms, and seeds, especially grains. * * * In 
autumn, while the rice is yet in the stack, they commit considerable mischief by feed- 
ing on the grain, although not so much as when it is in a juicy state, when the plant- 
ers are obliged to employ persons to chase them from the fields.? 
In the preliminary investigations made by the Biological Survey 
there have been examined 116 stomachs from Florida, Georgia, and 
Texas, representing every month in the year (see p. 76). The food 
consists of 39.8 percent of animal matter and 60.2 percent of vegcta- 
ble matter. The former is made up of insects and crustaceans, with a 
few lizards, batrachians, small mammals, etc. Crustaceans amount to 
about two-fifths of the animal food (15.6 percent of the total food), 
and consist of crayfishes, crabs, and shrimps, which plainly indicate 
the littoral habits of the species. No insects appear to be specially 
sought. Predaceous beetles (Carabide) are eaten to the extent of 3.3 
percent and are taken mostly in fall. Other beetles are eaten to some 
extent, but no family isconspicuous. Grasshoppers are eaten in July 
and August, to the extent of 31.9 and 47.7 percent, respectively, but 
very few in any other month. The average for the year is 7.3 per- 
cent. Various other insects form 9.7 percent of the food, but no order 
is especially prominent. Six birds taken in Texas in September are 
worthy of special mention from the fact that they had all eaten cotton- 
ball worms (Heliothis armiger) in quantities varying from 26 to 93 
percent of the food. While remains of small vertebrates are frequent 
in the stomachs, they do not form an important element. 
Grain constitutes 46.8 percent of the total food. Of this all but a 
mere trace is corn, which composes part of the food of every month 
except May—the only stomachs collected in this month came from 
a vice field at Savannah, Ga., where corn was probably not readily 
obtainable. In each month except May and November corn consti- 
tutes more than half of the vegetable food, and in March, April. and 
August it is the only vegetable matter taken. April shows the great- 
est amount (92.7 percent of the total food), but as only 3 stomachs 
were taken in this month, this result can hardly be regarded as a fair 
average. The pulp of some large seed or nut, not otherwise identi- 
fied, was the most important element next to corn. The remains of 
figs were found in several stomachs and wild grapes in one, which 
indicates that fruit is eaten, though sparingly. No weed seed was 
found in any of the stomachs. 
1 Qrnith. Biog., Vol. II, p. 504, 1835. 
