WESTERN TANAGER. 



23 



The following table shows the percentages of the various items of 

 food of the linnet for each month of the year : 



Table of percentage of food of the linnet for each month in year. 



January.. 

 February- 

 March ... 

 April 



Mai 



Lay. 



June 



July 



August 



September 

 October . . . 

 November 

 December. 



Month. 



Total 



Average. 



Number of 

 stomachs 

 examined. 



35 



186 

 80 

 74 

 167 

 148 

 118 

 123 

 108 

 25 

 54 



Animal 



food 



eaten. 



Percent. 

 0.0 

 2.9 

 1.0 

 5.8 

 6.3 

 3.9 

 2.2 

 7.1 

 0.1 

 0.0 

 0.0 

 0.0 



2.4 



Vegetable food eaten. 



Weed 

 seed . 



•cent. 

 99.8 

 97.1 

 89.5 

 92.5 

 88.9 

 81.6 

 76.5 

 64.0 

 71.6 

 83.5 

 91.7 

 97.8 



Fruit. 



Percent. 



0.2 



0.0 



5.8 



1.7 



4.8 



13.4 



19.7 



27.4 



26.7 



15.6 



8.3 



1.8 



10.4 



Miscel- 

 laneous. 



Percent. 

 0.0 

 0.0 

 3.6 

 0.0 

 0.0 

 1.2 

 1.5 

 1.5 

 1.6 

 0.9 

 0.0 

 0.4 



Total 



vegetable 



food. 



Percent. 

 1<)0. 

 97.1 

 99.0 

 94.2 

 93.7 

 96.1 

 97.8 

 92.9 

 99.9 

 100.0 

 100.0 

 100.0 



97.5 



WESTERN TANAGER. 



(Piranga ludoviciana.) 



The western tanager, like the robin, occasionally becomes a nuisance 

 in the orchard. It breeds in the mountainous regions of California 

 and northward, and as a rule is not common in the fruit-growing 

 sections. 



DAMAGE TO CHERRY CROP. 



There are, however, times during migration when it fairly swarms 

 in some of the fruit-raising regions, and unfortunately this sometimes 

 happens just at the time when the cherry crop is ripening. The bird 

 is a late breeder and does not seem to care to get to its nesting ground 

 before the last of June or early July. It is thus enabled to begin in 

 the southern part of the State when cherries are ripening there, and 

 leisurely follow the ripening fruit northward. The year 1896 wit- 

 nessed an incursion of these tanagers, when they swarmed over much 

 of the State and destroyed a large part of the cherry crop. 



Probably the best account of this occurrence is that of W. O. Emer- 

 son (published in the Condor, Vol. V, 1903, p. 64). Mr. Emerson 

 says : 



One of the most wonderful occurrences of the movements of birds in the sea- 

 son of migration which ever came under my notice, took place at Hayward 

 during May, 1896, when countless numbers of Piranga ludoviciana, or Louisiana 

 tanagers, began to make their appearance between May 12 and 14. From the 

 18th to the 22d they were to be seen in endless numbers, moving off through the 

 hills and canyons to their summer breeding range in the mountains. This con- 

 tinued till the 28th, and by June 1 only here and there a straggling member of 



