38 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM. 



29, 1898) had made the bulk of their food of them. The genus is 

 not exclusively carnivorous, for it has been known to feed on seeds 

 of grasses and weeds, and recently (1900) has been discovered eating- 

 strawberry seeds to a harmful extent. One grower at Leechburg, 

 Pa., lost on a quarter-acre patch $350 in three nights through their 

 depredations.^' The nature of the injur}^ has so far made remedial 

 methods impracticable; consequently the predatory habit of birds is 

 valuable in this case. 



There is an increasing tendency to doubt the utility of ground- 

 beetles as a class. A European species {Zahi'us gihhus) is a notorious 

 grain pest, and an American species {Agonoderits palli^es) has recentl}^ 

 been ascertained to feed sometimes on newly planted corn. Professor 

 Forbes has shown that the food habits of ground-beetles vary with 

 the structure of their jaws, species with sharp-curved jaws being 

 carnivorous, while those with blunt jaws are decidedly vegetarian. 

 Only a few — probably less than half a dozen — of the Marshall Hall 

 birds examined had destroyed the more carnivorous species. It is 

 probable, therefore, that birds do no appreciable harm in their rela- 

 tion to ground-beetles, but may even do some good by reducing the 

 numbers of such species as have vegetarian habits and occasionally 

 become pests. The following is a list of the different ground-beetles 

 found in the stomachs collected: Amara^ Anisodactylus agricola, A. 

 Tusticiis^Bemhidium^Cratacaiitlms diibhis, Chlsenius destivus^ IIciTjpalus 

 caliginosiis, H. i^ennsylvanicus^ and several smaller species of Ilar- 

 paliis. These had been eaten by 82 birds of the following 35 diffei'ent 

 species: 



List of birds examined whose stomachs contained ground-beetles. 



Woodcock. Eusty blackbird. Louisiana water-thrush. 



Spotted sandpiper. Crow blackbird. Maryland yellow-throat. 



Bobwhite. Savanna sjjarrow. Chat. 



Downy woodpecker. Grasshopper sparrow. Mockingbird. 



FUcker. Henslow s^jarrow. Catbird. 



Kingbird. White-throated sparrow. Brown thrasher. 



Great crested flycatcher. Chipping sparrow. House wren. 



Phoebe. ' Junco. Gray-cheeked thrush. 



Blue jay. Song sparrow. Olive-backed thrush. 



Crow. Towhee. Robin. 



Red-winged blackbird. Cardinal. Bluebird. 



Meadowiark. Water-thrush. 



Ladybirds. — The most useful of all beetles are the members of the 

 family CoccinellidaB, commonly known as Iad3i3irds, w^hich with their 

 larvae are voracious feeders on insect pests. Only three of the Mar- 

 shall Hall birds — a long-billed marsh wren, a song sparrow, and an 

 English sparrow — were found to have destro3^ed these valuable insects. 



"Bull. Cornell Univ. Agric. Expt. Sta., p. 150, 1901. 



