VEGETABLE FOOD OF BLAGKHEAD. 67 
Oats may be injured later in the season when in the milk, as some 
were found in the stomach of a nestling blackhead. This grain, 
however, may have come from the abundant wild oats. In any case, 
the small percentage of grain consumed precludes serious injury 
under all but the most exceptional conditions. 
WEED SEED AND OTHER VEGETABLE FOOD. 
From April to August, inclusive, weed seeds constitute an average 
of 8.74 percent of the food of the blackheaded grosbeak. Most of 
the seeds are derived from noxious plants; hence their destruction 
is a service. Alfilaria (Zrodium) seeds were taken by 13 birds, and 
chickweed (Alsine) by the same number. The little shining black 
seeds of red maids (Calandrinia) were eaten by 8 individuals, and 
the large fleshy akenes of the milk thistle (J/ariana, Pl. II, fig. 
12) by 5. Professor Beal several times has observed: blackheads 
feeding on the latter seeds, and the birds are known to be quite fond 
also of the similar seeds of the garden sunflower. Among other weed 
seeds found in the stomachs are tumbleweed (Amaranthus, fig. 18), 
smartweed (Polygonum, fig. 1), dock (Rumex), nightshade (Sola- 
num), eatchfly (Silene), geranium, and bur clover (Medicago). 
A few miscellaneous things, such as spires and wads of grass, conif- 
erous leaves, and galls, were present in a few stomachs. 
Several items not detected in the stomachs examined are men- 
tioned by other writers, and among them are garden peas, which it 
will be remembered are relished by the rosebreast also. Dr. J. A. 
Allen wrote in 1872 that in Utah the blackhead is “called ‘ pea 
bird,’ it being very fond of young peas, and is hence regarded as 
obnoxious.” 
Mr. Jackson Tabor, of Folsom, N. Mex., in connection with hi, 
description of the bird’s depredations on fruit says: 
They commenced on early vegetables, took the pea crop in toto, and put in 
their work on everything in the garden, even eating green beans that I never 
knew anything else to touch. (September 2, 19038.) 
The bird shares in a taste said by many to be characteristic of all 
grosbeaks, and Mr. Henshaw ® in 1876, writing of the bird’s habits 
in the middle region of the West, states that— 
It appears especially fond of the buds of various deciduous trees and plants, 
and the bills of many of those taken had been stained and gummed with their 
juices. 
At times it feeds extensively on willow buds, according to Doctor 
Coues. and Mr. Ridgway says that in May, in Truckee Valley, 
Nevada, it was observed to feed on the buds of the greasewood.¢ 
“Bull. M. C. Z., III, 6, 1872, p. 168. 
> Zool. Expl. West of 100th Meridian, V, 1876, p. 297. 
¢ Geol. Expl. 40th Parallel, IV, Pt. III, 1877, p. 488. 
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