SPARROW FAMILY. 87 
first analysis of the food gives 24 percent of animal matter to 76 of 
vegetable. Dead leaves, bits of twigs, rotten wood, and other rub- 
bish are very common in the stomachs, and probably are swallowed 
accidentally with more nutritious morsels. 
Animal food.—Beetles are the largest item of animal food, and 
amount to a little more than 10 percent. Although the larger part 
of the towhee’s living is gleaned from the ground, only 4 stomachs 
contained the remains of predaceous ground beetles, and 2 others 
the remains of ladybirds (Coccinellide). Weevils were found in 26 
stomachs, and in 13 stomachs were the remains of that harmful 
chrysomalid beetle Diabrotica soror. Besides these were fragments 
of elaterids, buprestids, and cerambycids, all of which in the larval 
state bore into trees and other plants and do great mischief. Hymen- 
optera amount to 6 percent of the diet, but are eaten rather irregu- 
larly. They are mostly taken in summer, but some appear at all 
times of the year. They were found in 39 stomachs, of which 25 
contained ants, and 14, wasps and bees. 
Bugs (Hemiptera) amount to 14 percent, and are distributed among 
several families; but the only point that merits mention is that the 
black olive scale was found in 4’stomachs and an unidentified scale 
inl. The spotted towhee does not appear to care for grasshoppers. 
They form only 1.7 percent of the year’s food, and are eaten very 
irregularly. In June they reach a little more than 11 percent, in 
August they amount to only 6 percent, and few were found in other 
months. Caterpillars aggregate 3.5 percent of the food. They are 
eaten rather irregularly, without much regard to season, but the 
greatest number, 12 percent, were taken in April. A few flies, some 
other insects, spiders, millepeds, and sowbugs (Oniscus) make up 
about 3 percent, the remainder of the animal food. These last are 
just what the bird would be expected to get by scratching among 
underbrush. 
Vegetable food.—Fruit was eaten in every month from May to 
November inclusive, with a good percentage in each month. Janu- 
ary also shows 11.7 percent, but this was either wild or waste. The 
average for the year is 17.7 percent. The month of greatest consump- 
tion was November, when it amounted to 53.6 percent. All of it 
was in the shape of fruit pulp, not further identifiable. At that time 
of year it could have been of no value. Fruit pulp, identified only 
as such, was found in 23 stomachs. Rubus seeds and pulp (rasp- 
berries or blackberries) were found in 23 stomachs; cherries, grapes, 
and figs in 1 each. Elderberries (Sambucus glauca) were found in : 
stomachs, snowberries (Symphoricarpos racemosus) in 3, and blac 
twinberries (Lonicera involucrata) in 1. The fruit eaten in J une and 
July was almost entirely Rubus fruit, which may have been either 
wild or cultivated, except in one case, where the seeds of Logan 
