16 FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 
several garden and field crops. Measuring worms were eaten by 2 
Fic. 8.—Bollworm or corn-ear worm (Heliothis obsoleta). 
(From Quaintance, Bureau of Entomology.) 
cardinals, the ze- 
bra caterpillar 
(fig. 10) of the 
cabbage by 1, 
while 2 secured 
chrysalides of the 
notorious codling 
moth. It thus ap- 
pears that the 
lepidopterous food 
of this grosbeak 
contains a number 
of serious pests, 
and the bird ac- 
complishes much 
good by destroy- 
ing them. 
A somewhat 
larger number of 
cardinals than ate 
caterpillars preyed 
upon grasshop- 
pers, and these in- 
sects form a corre- 
spondingly larger 
proportion of the 
food, namely 6.43 
percent. Crickets and long and short horned locusts were eaten and 
a decided taste for the eggs of katydids is 
shown, they being consumed by 21 red- 
birds. Among the short-horned grasshop- 
pers the small shield-back grouse locusts 
were taken, and also the lesser migratory 
locusts (Melanoplus atlanis, fig. 39), 
which during the invasions of the Rocky 
Mountain grasshopper was second only 
in importance to that formidable insect. 
The cardinal did its share in repelling 
the locust hosts in the seventies, Mr. 
Aughey, of Nebraska, finding more than 
20 locusts per bird during his examina- 
tions. It is certain that the redbird’s aid 
in restricting the less conspicuous pests 
of the present day is no less valuable. 
Fic. 9.—Cotton cutworm (Prodenia 
ornithogalli). (From Chittenden, 
Bureau of Entomology.) 
Other insects bearing the name “ locusts,” but not at all closely 
