18 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
In the first analysis of the food components the two principal 
elements are found to be: Animal matter, 2.4¢ percent; vegetable 
matter, 97.6 percent. 
Animal food.—This brings into strong rehef the linnet’s sins of 
omission. Living in a country where constant war against noxious 
insects is necessary, the bird takes little or no part in the contest, and 
in return for benefits derived from man renders but slight service in 
this direction. 
The small portion of animal food it takes, however, consists almost 
wholly of insects and a large proportion of it of plant-lice (Aphi- 
didxe), which from their small size do not attract the notice of many 
species of birds. They appear, however, to be the favorite animal 
food of the linnet, and it is noticeable that a large percentage of them 
are the woolly species. Many of the birds when killed had their 
beaks smeared with the remains of woolly aphides. As these insects 
are notoriously harmful to many trees and other plants, any bird that 
destroys them is a benefactor. It is to be regretted that the linnet 
should not indulge to a greater extent a taste so well directed. Were 
25 percent of its food made up of woolly aphides the fruit it destroys 
would be well paid for. The other contingent of animal matter 
found in the linnet’s stomach consists of small caterpillars and a few 
beetles, chiefly weevils. Most birds that feed on plant-lice eat also 
the ants that are usually in attendance upon them, but the only trace 
of ants or of other Hymenoptera in the stomachs of linnets was one 
ant’s jaw. Grasshoppers, the favorite food of so many birds, were 
represented by a mere fragment in one stomach. 
Vegetable food.—The most interesting part of the food of the lin- 
net is the vegetable portion. This naturally falls into three cate- 
gories: Weed seed, which amounts to 86.2 percent of the annual food; 
fruit, 10.5 percent; and other miscellaneous vegetable matter, 0.9 per- 
cent. 
Fruit.—Fruit is represented in stomachs taken in January by a 
mere trace. This was probably of no value, only ungathered fruit or 
perhaps belated olives. In stomachs taken in February no fruit was 
found, but in ensuing months it appears in small quantities, increas- 
ing irregularly until August, when a maximum of 27.4 percent was 
eaten. In September a trifle less was taken than in August, and after 
that the quantity decreases until December, in which month a little 
less than 2 percent was eaten. In March the fruit amounted to 
about 6 percent, a quantity hard to account for except on the suppo- 
sition that it was waste fruit left over from the previous year. The 
« While percentages are sometimes given in fraction, it need not be assumed 
that extreme accuracy is intended; such figures must be taken as only an 
approximation to the truth. 
