306 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



" The vegetable food consists of grain, weed seed, and various 

 miscellaneous substances, none of which amounts to any great 

 percentage. The latter consists chiefly of a very small amount 

 of fruit, a little mast, and a number of unidentifiable substances, 

 probably picked up about water or in swamps. Of grain, com 

 is the favorite and amounts to 17.6 per cent of the year's food." 

 " The vegetable food is of little consequence, as the birds show 

 no decided predilection for any particular kind, but eat whatever 

 is at hand when animal food cannot be obtained. Grain is not 

 eaten to any great extent at harvest time, and the other items 

 do not seem to have any special relation to the season in which 

 they are eaten." (Beal, " Food of Bobolinks, Blackbirds, and 

 Crackles.") 



The Crow Blackbirds or Purple and Bronzed Grackles 

 (Qiiiscalus quiscula quiscula and ceneus) by their feeding habits 

 present themselves here. " The food of the whole year, taking 

 into account all the 2,346 stomachs, young and adult, comprised 

 30.3 per cent animal, and 69.7 per cent vegetable matter. The 

 animal food was found to be composed of insects, spiders, 

 myriapods, crayfish, earthworms, sowbugs, hair-snakes, snails, 

 fish, tree-toads, salamanders (newts), lizards, snakes, birds' eggs, 

 and mice. 



" Insect food constitutes 27 per cent of the entire food for 

 the year, and is the most interesting part of the birds' diet from 

 an economic point of view." 



" Analysis of the insect food presents many points of interest. 

 Among the most imf>ortant families of beetles are the scarabaeids, 

 of which the common June-bug or May-beetle and the rose-bugs 

 are familiar examples. These insects are eaten, either as beetles 

 or grubs, in every month except January and November ; in May 

 they constitute more than one-fifth, and in June one-seventh of 

 the entire food. The habit Grackles have of following the plow 

 to gather grubs is a matter of comriion observation, which has 

 been fully confirmed by stomach examinations. Many stomachs 

 were found literally crammed with grubs, and in many more, 

 where other foods predominated, the hard jaws showed that 

 grubs had formed a goodly portion of a previous meal." 



" Next in importance to beetles as an article of blackbird diet 

 are the grasshoppers. For convenience, grasshoppers, locusts 



