WESTERN TANAGER. 23 
The following table shows the percentages of the various items of 
food of the linnet for each month of the year: 
Table of percentage of food of the linnet for each month in year. 
Vegetable food eaten. 
sats ee ee ; 
onth. stomachs 001 . Tota 
examined.| eaten. aces Fruit. rane eo 
Percent. | Percent. | Percent. | Percent. | Percent. 
88 0.0 99.8 0.2 0.0 100.0 
35 2.9) 97.1 0.0 0.0 97.1 
186 1.0 89.5 5.8 3.6 99.0 
80 5.8 92.5 1.7 0.0 94.2 
74 6.3 88.9 4.8 0.0 93.7 
167 3.9 81.6 13.4 1.2 96.1 
148 239) 76.5 19.7 1.5 97.8 
118 ak 64.0 27.4 1.5 92.9 
| 123 0.1 71.6 26.7 1.6 99.9 
eat 108 0.0 83.5 15.6 0.9 100.0 
INOVEMIDGR: 5,5,<1ai0c25jnisherssicitintntie execs Oh ‘ 25 0.0 91.7 8.3 0.0 100. 0 
December sccicevsecacvesctitedsaontasetie 54 0.0 97.8 1.8 0.4 100. 0 
EOC aiesrorci ties ufarscinidetecnasstuii hewiaraiaied l De QOG Alta nai.h sscecte| eee ie NN ate es tsycenstoal| ahaa ans (aims ciall cies oem aes 
PAV OLE GE oes sssccerdreeares aianteeeoetis at Baieh aha tclenslane 2.4 86.2 10.4 0.9 97.5 
| 
WESTERN TANAGER. 
(Piranga ludoviciana.) 
The western tanager, like the robin, occasionally becomes a nuisance 
in the orchard. It breeds in the mountainous regions of California 
and northward, and as a rule is not common in the fruit-growing 
sections. 
DAMAGE TO CHERRY CROP. 
There are, however, times during migration when it fairly swarms 
in some of the fruit-raising regions, and unfortunately this sometimes 
happens just at the time when the cherry crop is ripening. The bird 
is a late breeder and does not seem to care to get to its nesting ground 
before the last of June or early July. It is thus enabled to begin in 
the southern part of the State when cherries are ripening there, and 
leisurely follow the ripening fruit northward. The year 1896 wit- 
nessed an incursion of these tanagers, when they swarmed over much 
of the State and destroyed a large part of the cherry crop. 
Probably the best account of this occurrence is that of W. O. Emer- 
son (published in the Condor, Vol. V, 1903, p. 64). Mr. Emerson 
says: 
One of the most wonderful occurrences of the movements of birds in the sea- 
son of migration which ever came under my notice, took place at Hayward 
during May, 1896, when countless numbers of Piranga Iudoviciana, er Louisiana 
tanagers, began to make their appearance between May 12 und 14. From the 
18th to the 22d they were to be seen in endless numbers, moving off through the 
hills and canyons to their summer breeding range in the mountains. This con- 
tinued till the 28th, and by June 1 only here and there a straggling member of 
