38 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
were filled: with beetles, ants, wasps, and crickets. In a bird so 
thoroughly insectivorous as the shrike it is not probable that the food 
of the nestlings differs essentially from that of adults. 
As a feature of the landscape and as lending animation to rural 
scenes the shrike in California is a pronounced success, and when one 
sees him jauntily balancing on a telephone wire it is pleasant to 
reflect that in his economic relations he is as admirable as he is from 
the esthetic point of view. 
VIREOS. 
The vireos are a group of rather small tree-haunting birds of plain 
colors, modest habits, and sweet but unobtrusive voices. One or the 
other of the several species inhabits pretty much everything in the 
way of a tree from the monarchs of the forest down to the humblest 
underbrush. In thickly settled country vireos inhabit gardens, 
orchards, and city parks, and shade trees along the village streets. 
Most of them are migrants, and leave the United States in winter, 
but a few remain on the Pacific coast throughout the year. Their 
food consists largely of insects, though a little fruit and some seeds 
are occasionally eaten. 
In the insect diet of the vireos there is one element which consti- 
tutes a bar sinister on an otherwise brilliant escutcheon. All the 
species investigated show a decided taste for ladybirds—that is, 
coccinellid beetles. No other genus of birds, nor any single species 
(with one possible exception), so far has been known to manifest 
such fondness for these useful insects. In California the destruction 
of ladybird beetles is perhaps a greater crime than it would be in 
almost any other section of the country, for here the bark scales and 
plant-lice upon which these beetles feed are very destructive, and 
every device for their extermination has been employed, even to 
importing several foreign species of these predatory beetles. 
Time was when the devastation of the San Jose scale and several 
other species of scale insects threatened the fruit industry of Cali- 
fornia, and there can be no reasonable doubt that the coccinellid 
beetles of both the imported and native species were largely instru- 
mental in checking the spread of these pests. It is to be remarked 
that these beetles are wonderfully abundant in California, probably 
more so than any other family. The writer found them upon corn, 
weeds, grass, and bushes, often where apparently there was none 
of their natural food. In mitigation of the vireos’ habit of eating 
ladybirds all that can be said is that where there is such a super- 
abundance of the insects the damage is minimized. 
The writer is glad to be able to add that besides the coccinellids, 
vireos eat many harmful insects, among which are the black olive 
