THE ORIOLES, BLACKBIRDS, CROWS, AND JAYS. 159 



consumed every month in the year, and that it forms about 

 half of the vegetable food, or a fourth of the entire con- 

 sumption, — the animal and vegetable materials being about 

 equal. There was little evidence to show that sprouting corn 

 was pulled up, and it appeared that much of the grain was 

 waste matter picked up after the harvest. The record of the 

 September birds was bad : more than half the food for that 

 month was corn, evidently taken from the ear. In October 

 the ratio was nearly as great. 



Among the animal food were found insects, spiders, my- 

 riapods, crawfish, earthworms, sowbugs, hair-snakes, snails, 

 fishes, tree-toads, salamanders, lizards, snakes, birds 1 eggs, 

 and mice. While this is an astonishing variety, everything but 

 insects must be considered exceptional, as out of the forty- 

 eight per cent, of animal food forty-six per cent, consisted 

 of insects. Of these, beetles were consumed in greatest 

 quantities. Scarabseids, adult and larval, come first in point 

 of numbers. As is well known, these beetles either as larva? 

 or adults are consumers of vegetable matter, and many of 

 them are distinctly noxious. The large white grubs so often 

 unearthed by the plow form a favorite article of food : many 

 stomachs were crammed with them. Snout-beetles, among 

 which were curculios and weevils, were found in great num- 

 bers in stomachs taken during summer. Bollworms and 

 army-worms are also eaten by these birds. Grasshoppers 

 were found to be largely eaten also : more than thirty were 

 often found in a single bird. This fact, when coupled with 

 the fact that many 'hoppers and caterpillars are fed to the 

 young, demonstrates that in summer at least the crow black- 

 bird is a good friend in helping to keep down the grasshopper 

 pest. Caterpillars and stink-bugs were often in evidence. 



In writing of the food of the young crow blackbirds Dr. S. D. 

 Judd says : " The first meal of the nestlings often consists of 

 plump spiders of soft texture, which suit the delicate embry- 

 onic stomach ; and these, together with tiny young grasshopper 



