INJURIOUS INSECTS EATEN BY THE ROSEBREAST. 45 
the number examined, devoured click-beetles, thus benefiting the 
farmer considerably. 
Not so many of the birds fed upon long-horned borers, but the re- 
sulting benefits are less valuable only in degree, as the beetles of this 
family are often disastrous pests. They are frequently large and 
strikingly colored, and one of the handsomest, as well as the most 
injurious kinds, the painted hickory borer (Cyllene pictus) is eaten 
by the rosebreast. This insect is known as the commonest and most 
destructive pest of the hickory. Another borer also’ (Ph ymatodes 
varius), which lives in dead wood, and which is sometimes injurious 
to the tanbark industry in the South, is devoured. 
The rosebreast shows particular fondness for large beetles, a taste 
readily gratified among the lamellicorn or scarabzeid beetles. Among 
these larger species, beetles of the genus Dichelonycha, which feed 
upon flowers and sometimes are destructive to cultivated plants, were 
eaten by 9 rosebreasts. Six ate cetoniids 
(Euphoria fulgida, et al.), which are es- » @. @ 
pecially adapted for feeding on flowers, a ae 
and which also at times turn their atten- 
tion to fruit and the tassels, silk, and 
young grains of corn. The beautiful 
and bulky goldsmith beetle, about three- 
fourths of an inch long, is captured oc- 
casionally, and for this service the bird 
is to be commended, as sometimes the 
larve are very destructive to strawber- ; 
. : . Fic. 23.—Seed corn scarabeid 
ries. A white grub or larva of a june- (Aphodius granarius). (From 
bug was the plump morsel obtained by ae iMnolsy | Baperiment 
another grosbeak. The ravages of this 
beetle in lawns and strawberry plots are well known. The, bird 
feeds also upon another good-sized scarabeid (Anomala binotata), 
which injures grapes and other plants. 
Among the smaller members of this family the dung beetles, 
which occur in large numbers, flying near the ground along country 
roads, are frequently captured by this grosbeak. Most of them are 
of neutral economic position, but one species (Aphodius granarius, 
fig. 23), burrows into sprouting corn. Having -this bad habit, the 
farmer is indebted to the grosbeak for preying upon it. 
Passing to a group of beetles, the weevils, which are an important 
element of the food of most birds, and which are so uniformly in- 
jurious that almost any one of them may be deemed a pest, it is grati- 
fying to note that the rosebreast does its share toward checking 
them. Moreover, among the kinds it eats is one of the very worst 
enemies of cultivated fruit in the United States, namely, the plum 
curculio (Conotrachelus nenuphar, fig. 24). One grosbeak devoured 
