86 FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 
Henry Nehrling*@ writes: 
It is said to eat green peas, and for this reason it is often killed, though the 
damage done in this way does not compare with the many benefits it bestows. 
The question is, Do stomach examinations support this view? 
Years ago Prof. F. E. L. Beal observed the rosebreast in the act of 
eating peas and found the pods cut open and the peas gone; the con- 
tents of a stomach were examined, and two or three peas, several 
potato beetles. and a tomato worm were found; whence it is evident 
that this particular grosbeak, at least, was paying well for its peas. 
In this connection the record of 6 birds from Iowa gardens is of 
interest. Fifteen percent of their food was peas, and to that extent. 
of course. they were detrimental: but as an offset more than 17 per- 
cent consisted of bronzy wood-borers and 12.5 percent of weevils, in- 
eluding the injurious pine bark-weevil and 2 nut weevils. While 
these insects are very injurious to timber, it may be claimed that they 
are not of direct consequence to the gardener. But insects especially 
injurious to garden crops also were consumed, 14.8 percent of the 
food consisting of white grubs, which are enemies of strawberries. 
and a flower beetle, which injures young corn and many fruits, besides 
the notorious Colorado potato beetle. Caterpillars and ants also 
were preyed upon by these 6 birds. and scale insects (/’ulecanium 
sp.). the very worst pest of fruit trees, formed 4.5 percent of their 
food. The gardener is vitally concerned in reducing the numbers of 
these insects, and it is evident that the 15 percent of peas consumed 
is paid for many times over by the destruction of more than three 
times that amount of garden and forest enemies. Moreover, to de- 
termine the true significance of the damage done, not only the birds 
which had eaten peas, but the species collectively must be considered. 
The present investigation shows that 3 birds out of 176 had stolen 
peas, while scores had literally feasted upon the worst enemies of 
agriculture. Peas constitute 1.36 percent of the total food of the 
grosbeaks examined, while noxious insects certainly compose thirty 
times as much. Viewed in the light of these facts, the loss sustained 
would be nothing compared to the benefits received were it not for 
the fact that the birds’.depredations are often local in character, as 
in the case cited above, one cultivator, perhaps, furnishing the supply 
of peas for-all the grosbeaks in the neighborhood. 
However, even under such circumstances a remedy is available 
without the necessity of sacrificing the birds. Wire guards or bird 
netting afford protection, and in the case cited above Professor Beal 
at once stopped the grosbeaks’ visits to his pea patch by means of an 
old coat on a pole. ; 
“Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty, II, 1896, p. 206, 
