GROSBEAKS 251 



commonly eaten are wild grapes, dogwood berries, black- 

 berries, raspberries, mulberries, hackberries, pokeberries, 

 cherries, and the seeds of the spice bush, prickly pear 

 (cactus), sumac, and poison ivy. McAtee, treating of the 

 food habits of the cardinal, says: 



The cardinal has been accused of pilfering certain grains, 

 notably corn, to an injurious extent, which charge the evidence 

 from stomach examinations [nearly 500 were examined] neither 

 proves nor disproves. But in view of the fact that only 8.73 

 per cent of the total food is grain, and that more than half of 

 that amount is waste, the loss is greatly overbalanced by. the 

 destruction of weed seeds alone, which compose more than half 

 of the vegetable food. * * * since the cardinal, by its general 

 food habits, does at least 15 times more good than harm, it 

 must be classed among the very useful species. The following 

 list of important pests the bird has been shown to prey upon 

 is in itself sufficient proof of the cardinal's value. The list in- 

 cludes the Rocky Mountain locust, 17-year cicada, potato beetle, 

 cotton worm, boll worm, cotton cutworm, cotton-boll weevil, 

 codling moth, rose-beetle, cucumber beetle, fig eater, zebra cater- 

 pillar, plum scale, and other scale insects. A host of minor in- 

 sect pests are attacked and the seeds of many noxious weeds 

 are destroyed. The cardinal much more than pays its way and 

 deserves and should receive strict protection.* 



ROSE-BREASTE'D GROSBEAK: Hedymeles ludoviGtana 



(Linnaeus) .f 



State records. — The rose-breasted grosbeak occurs in Ala- 

 bama as an uncommon migrant. McCormack has noted it only 

 twice at Leighton— a pair April 25, 1890, and a male a few 

 days later. Avery records it as a rare autumn migrant at 

 Greensboro, seen September 23 and 25, 1890, September 26 

 and October 4, 1893. Holt saw it at Barachias, April 26, 1909, 

 and May 2, 1913, and I took a male there, April 24, 1912. 

 Several were seen or heard on Sipsey Fork, near Mellville, 

 May 2 to 5, 1914, and one at Prattville Junction, May 9, 1914. 

 Saunders found a few at HoUins between April 25 and May 4, 

 1908 ; Miss Parkhurst records one at Talladega, May 3, 1908 ; 

 Graves saw one on Sand Mountain, May 7, 1911, and three 



•McAtee, W. L., Biol. Surv. BulL 82, pp. M-25, 1908. ^ , , 



IZamelodia Indoviciana of the A. O. U. Check-list ; for change of name see The Auk, 

 vol. 40, p. B2S, 1923. 



