WEEDS EATEN BY CARDINAL. 11 
is noteworthy that the cardinal appears to be the only one of the 
grosbeaks which uses its massive beak for the purpose for which it 
seems especially designed, namely, the cracking and grinding of hard 
seeds. The samaras of maple were found in a few stomachs, and in 
Florida Mr. C. J. Maynard ¢ observed more than 20 cardinals feeding 
on the seeds of a single maple. The somewhat similar winged seeds 
of the tulip tree also serve as food, and, according to the experience 
of the writer, are a favorite winter diet of the redbird around Wash- 
ington. Galls were eaten by 4 birds, and buds, which often have been 
stated to be especially sought after by grosbeaks, by only 2. 
WEEDS. 
The seeds of bindweeds, grasses, sedges, etc., form 86.38 percent of 
the entire food—more than half of the vegetable diet of the species. 
They were eaten by 361 of the birds examined, and range from 6 to 49 
percent of the fare in different months, the 
greatest quantity being consumed in winter. 
The seeds of the various smartweeds (fig. 1) 
and bindweeds (fig. 21) are of most impor- 
tance, having been consumed by 81 cardinals 
and constituting 5.57 percent of the annual 
food. Six species were identified, and it is  ric.1—sceds of smart- 
probable that the seeds of all members of this ere a 
large genus are eaten indiscriminately. They — Hillman, Nevada Ux- 
are among the commonest and worst weeds of — Petiment_ Station.) 
both dooryards and cultivated fields. Besides being notorious crop 
chokers and seed adulterants, smartweeds are the main support of the 
disastrous corn-root aphids before the latter are transferred to the 
corn by their ant guardians. Hence the cardinal’s habit of devouring 
smartweed seeds is beneficial, not only in abating direct injury by 
these pernicious weeds but also in tending to diminish the number of 
aphids by destroying their most important host. plants. 
The seeds of foxtail grasses (figs. 17 and 87) are next in impor- 
tance. Foxtail is only too well known for its keen competition with 
cultivated crops, and is to be classed among the most troublesome 
weeds. Its seeds compose 3.21 percent of the cardinal’s food, 51 out 
of 498 birds examined having eaten them. Bur grass (Cenchrus 
tribuloides, Pl. II, fig. 10) should be mentioned here, as it is pos- 
sible some of its seeds were wrongly classed with those of foxtail, 
the shelled kernels of which they greatly resemble. They have been 
positively identified in several stomachs. Henry Nehrling® says car- 
dinals “are very fond of bur grass seeds or sand spurs * * * 
\ 
«Birds of E. N. A., 1881, p. 109. 
>Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty, II, 1896, p. 196, 
