46 FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 
three of these destructive weevils, which may be taken as indicating 
that an opportunity to feed on them is not overlooked. In this con- 
nection it is of interest to recall the other birds that are known to 
prey upon this pest. They are 8 in number: Great-crested flycatcher, 
Baltimore and orchard orioles, yellow-throated vireo, bank swallow, 
veery, hermit thrush, and bluebird. The grosbeak does not confine 
itself to the plum curculio, but evinces a taste for related species, 
two of which were identified. These infest the hackberry and hick- 
ory, respectively. A fourth kind was present in the stomachs, but 
could not be assigned a specific name. The curculios destroy a large 
proportion of the fruit of the trees they attack, and are capable of 
doing vast damage; hence the services of the birds that devour them 
are of great value. 
Related to the curculios are the nut weevils (Balaninus), which 
attack their favorite plants in much the same way, and often ruin 
the crop of nut-bearing 
trees. Six grosbeaks ate 
from 1 to 3 each of these 
weevils, one bird captur- 
ing 2 acorn weevils (B. 
nasicus). Another cur- 
eculionid (Hylobius 
pales), which feeds both 
in living pine trees and 
pine logs, is included in 
. the grosbeak’s diet, and 
Fic. 24.—Plum cureulio (Conotrachelus nenuphar). @ Weevil (Ampeloglypter 
(From Chittenden, Bureau of Entomology.) sesostris) 5 which infests 
the Virginia creeper, was highly relished by an Illinois rosebreast, 
11 being eaten, which constituted 74 percent of the stomach contents. 
Others in the same group are consumed, as many as 4 or 5 being eaten 
by individuals of the more than 20 birds which fed upon them. 
A second family of weevils, the scarred snout-beetles, also con- 
tributes to the fare of this grosbeak, and four of them composed 87 
percent of the food of one bird; while another rosebreast, one of four 
which fed upon clover weevils (Sttones), captured 13. Billbugs 
(Calandridx) are represented in the bird’s diet by the conspicuously 
red and black colored snout-beetle (2hodobaenus 13- punctatus) , com- 
mon on thoroughwort (Z'upatorium). A weevil of yet another branch 
of the suborder is sometimes devoured, namely, the peculiar brenthid 
(Eupsalis minuta), a very slender weevil which bores into living oak. 
Altogether weevils constitute 3.64 per cent of the rosebreast’s food, in 
which amount are included several great pests; hence the bird’s 
weevil-eating propensities result in much benefit to man. 
