102 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM. 



including- viscera and skin. Several days later the shrike dispatched a 

 live English sparrow about as it had the mouse, and impaled the 

 carcass. Then it plucked the breast and ate the pectoral muscles, 

 the lungs, and the heart. Live snakes {Sioreria dekayi) and lizards 

 {Scelojxfvus imdulatus) were also fed to the shrike. A toad was put 

 into the cage, and it attacked it, but soon desisted in evident distress, 

 caused probabh' by the toad's irritating secretions. Frogs and sala- 

 manders {PJethodoii) it relished. Goldfish and bass 2 or 3 inches long 

 it killed, impaled, and ate. 



It disgorged indigestible parts of its food in pellets, after the man- 

 ner of hawks and owls. Pellets of insects were not compact and fell 

 to pieces readilv, but those made of remains of mice or birds were 

 firm and kept their shape. When it was fed on May- beetles it dis- 

 gorged a pellet in one hour and twenty minutes; when fed on a mouse, 

 in three hours. The latter pellet was 7 by 18 millimeters in size and 

 shaped like an olive seed. The largest one ejected contained the 

 remains of a bird and a snake and measured 33 b}^ 11 millimeters. 

 When vertebrates had been eaten their bones were found inside the 

 pellet and the fur, feathers, or scales outside. 



VIREOS. 



Twenty -five vireos were collected, including 2 warbling vireos 

 (Yireo giJvus)^ 10 white-eyed vireos {Yireo 7iovehoracensis), and 18 

 red-eyed vireos ( Yireo olivaceus). Ninet^^-one percent of their food 

 consisted of insects and 9 percent of fruit (mulberries and sassafras). 

 Parasitic wasps formed 2 percent, ants and other Hymenoptera 6 per- 

 cent. May -flies 1 percent, caterpillars 15 percent, bugs IT percent, 

 beetles 28 percent, miscellaneous insects 8 percent, and spiders 11 

 percent. The Hymenoptera, other than ants, comprised jointworm 

 flies, saw-flv larvee, ichneumon flies, and bees of the genus Ilalictus. 

 The beetles included the following kinds: 



Typophoms canellus. Crepidodcra. 



Diabrotica l^-jnmctata. Colaspis hrunnea. 



Odontota dorscdis. Coptocycla bicolor. 



Mordella 8-punctata. Limonius qnercinns. 



Symphora rugosa. Agrihis. 



Ecyrus dasycenis. Helops venustus. 



Lepiura zebra. Helops micans. 



Ilyperplatys aspersus. Tanymecus confertus and other Rhyncho- 



Anomcda. phora. 



The bugs were stink bugs (Podisus), leaf -hoppers {Jassidce), and 

 scale iw^Qci^ {Kermes). The yellow- throated vireo ( Tl^V^^ j^a^^y?*^*;^^) 

 has been noted at Marshall Hall by Mr. William Palmer. All the 

 vireos are very useful protectors of forest and fruit trees. 



