THE BOAT-TAILED GEACKLE. 71 



Its food babitij have received but brief consideration from ornitholog- 

 ical writers. Audubon, whose account is apparently the best, says: 



The food of this species consists principally of those small crabs called "fiddlers," 

 of which millions are found along the margins of the rivers and mud-flats, as well aa 

 of large insects of all kinds, ground-worms, and seeds, especially grains. * * * In 

 autumn, while the rice is yet in the stack, they commit considerable mischief by feed- 

 ing on the grain, although not so much as when it is in a juicy state, when the plant- 

 ers are obliged to employ persons to chase them from the fields.^ 



In the preliminary investigations made by the Biological Survey 

 there have been examined 116 stomachs from Florida, Georgia, and 

 Texas, representing every month in the .year (see p. 76). The food 

 consists of 39.8 percent of animal matter and 60.2 percent of vegeta- 

 ble matter. The former is made up of insects and crustaceans, with a 

 few lizards, batraehians, small mammals, etc. Crustaceans amount to 

 about two-lifths of the animal food (1.5.6 percent of the total food), 

 and consist of crayfishes, crabs, and shrimps, which plainlv indicate 

 the littoral habits of the species. No insects appear to be specially 

 sought. Predaceous beetles (Carabidse) are eaten to the extent of 3.3 

 percent and are taken mostly in fall. Other beetles are eaten to some 

 extent, but no family is conspicuous. Grasshoppers are eaten in July 

 and August, to the extent of 31.9 and 17,7 percent, respectivel}^ but 

 very few in any other month. The average for the 3^ear is 7.3 per- 

 cent. Various other insects form 9.7 percent of the food, but no order 

 is especially prominent. Six birds taken in Texas in September are 

 worthy of special mention from the fact that the}^ had all eaten cotton- 

 ball worms {IleliotJtis arrmger) in quantities vaiying from 26 to 93 

 percent of the food. While remains of small vertebrates are frequent 

 in the stomachs, they do not form an important element. 



Grain constitutes 46.8 percent of the total food. Of this all but a 

 mere trace is corn, which composes part of the food of every month 

 except May — the only stomachs coUected in this month came from 

 a rice field at Savannah, Ga., where corn was probably not readily 

 obtainable. In each month except May and November corn consti- 

 tutes more than half of the vegetable food, and in March, April, and 

 August it is the only vegetable matter taken. April shows the great- 

 est amount (92.7 percent of the total food), but as onl}" 3 stomachs 

 were taken in this month, this result can hardl}^ be regarded as a fair 

 average. The pulp of some large seed or nut, not otherwise identi- 

 fied, was the most important element next to corn. The remains of 

 figs were found in several stomachs and wild gi-apes in one, which 

 indicates that fruit is eaten, though sparingl3^ No weed seed was 

 found in an}^ of the stomachs. 



^ Ornith. Biog., Vol. II, p. 504, 1835. 



