SPECIES. 



93 



In smaller numbers the birds had eaten flying ants, parasitic wasps, 

 and other wasps, bugs, caddis-flies, and spiders. One had tasted 

 blackberries. 



Four great crested fl3^catchers were collected in May. Their stomachs 

 contained May-flies, ants ( Camj)onotiis pen7i8ylvanicus and other forms), 

 parasitic wasps (Ichneumonidae, Scoliidee {Tiphia) and Evaniida?), bugs 

 (Moschishis SLud Nezara hilar Is), and beetles (Curculionidie, Elate ridae, 

 Cicindela sexguttata, Dicer ca, and Odontota dorsalis). Despite their 



Fig. 33.— Phoebe. 



taste for parasitic wasps both phoebe and great crested flycatcher are in 

 the main useful on account of the large number of insect pests they 

 destroy. 



HORNED LARKS. 



When the horned lark {Otocoris cdpestris) occurred at Marshall 

 Hall, as it did occasionally in severe winter weather, it subsisted almost 

 entirely on seeds, largely weed seeds, often with waste grain. A bird 

 collected during the severe blizzard of February, 1900, was feeding in 

 a wind-swept cowyard, where it secured a bit of a kernel of corn, 4 

 seeds of lamb's-quarters, 8 of crab-grass, 10 of bastard pennyroyal, 

 and 12 of ragweed. 



BL.TTE JAYS AND CROWS. 



Six blue ja3"s {Cyanocitta cristata^ fig. S-i) were collected in Maj^ 

 and November. All except one had taken insects. Beetles were the 

 most important element and comprised Chlmnius aestivus^ Lachnosterna^ 



