14 FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 
The last-named group- includes two mainly beneficial families, the 
ground beetles (Carabide) and the fireflies (Lampyridez). Since the 
destruction of these beetles by the cardinal tends to neutralize the 
good done in other ways, it is important to understand thoroughly 
the nature of the bird’s relation to them. Among the most beneficial 
of beetles are the caterpillar hunters (Calosoma, fig. 7), which 
ascend trees in quest of their prey, a rare habit among ground beetles. 
Thus these beetles attack caterpillars in a way others are unable to 
do. Two cardinals ate beetles of this genus... Another large carabid 
(Pasimachus), an enemy of grasshoppers and the army worm, was 
eaten by one redbird. Others devoured include Harpalus caliginosus, 
which is the bulky black beetle often seen feeding on the flowers of 
ragweed and which is evidently not entirely predaceous, and a 
larva of the nearly related beetle Dicaelus. Three birds captured 
individuals of the medium-sized but very hard Scarites subterraneus, 
which generally hides under stones by day. Specimens of two species 
of Anisodactylus and one beautiful blue 
Callida also were eaten. In all 34 red- 
birds fed upon beetles of this useful 
family, but each must have eaten spar- 
ingly, for the beetles compose but 0.75 
percent of the entire food, an amount 
too small to be reckoned against the con- 
sumer of more than 8 times that quantity 
of grasshoppers, in addition to many 
other injurious insects. 
Fireflies were eaten by only 4 cardi- 
nals, one of the birds obtaining the com- 
Re: 7—Caterpillar hunter (Calo- mon black and yellow soldier beetle 
fi ca (Chauliognathus marginatus), which 
commonly feeds on the pollen of midsummer blossoms, and another, 
one of the small black fireflies (Telephorus pusillus), the larve of. 
which are enemies of some common agricultural pests. Fireflies are 
eaten in such moderate measure that it is impracticable to assign 
them a percent, and we may conclude, so far as the present data go, 
that the cardinal does no appreciable injury to this group of insects., 
The wasps and similar insects (Hymenoptera) include among their 
number many beneficial parasitic species, and for that reason their 
status as food of the redbird must be looked into. Fifty-nine of the 
grosbeaks examined had eaten these insects, but they amount to only 
0.92 percent of the total food. None were positively identified as 
parasitic species, while some injurious forms were distinguished. 
Eleven cardinals ate ants, including the harvesting ants (Pogono- 
myrmex) and the small reddish Lasius, which foster plant lice, nota- 
bly the corn root aphids. One grosbeak ate a sawfly, which also is an 
insect of unsavory reputation. 3 
