ROSEBREAST VS. PEAS. 35 



The items obtained from cultivated crops, being of chief interest, 

 will be considered first. While it is needless to state that most of 

 the testimony regarding the value of this bird is favorable, yet com- 

 plaints of injury from it have been made which are verified by stom- 

 ach examinations. The crop most frequently attacked by rose- 

 breasted grosbeaks is the common garden pea. 



Ten accounts from correspondence and published Avritings go to 

 show that this grosbeak sometimes feeds upon peas. Six of them 

 refer to damage in Iowa, two in Illinois, one in Massachusetts, and 

 one general. Three persons regard the bird as very destructive; 

 three, while stating that injury is committed, are less severe in their 

 strictures ; while the remaining four, admitting the consumption of a 

 few peas, consider the bird's services in preying upon injurious in- 

 sects ample compensation for the loss sustained. 



The attacks of this bird upon peas were observed as early as 1839, 

 W. B. O. Peabody a writing as follows : 



At the latter part of the summer, our gardens are frequented by the young 

 in great numbers, and bitter complaints are made, with or without reason, of 

 their depredations on the pens. 



Among more recent charges of injury, that of IT. J. Giddings, of 

 Sabula, Iowa, may be cited, both because the amount of damage is 

 extreme, and further because the observations are supported in part 

 by stomach examination. Mr. Giddings says: 



During the last summer [1892] rosebreasted grosbeaks were unusually 

 numerous here. * * * The last two weeks in June and the first week in 

 July (after the young had left the nest) they became very destructive, eating 

 all kinds of fruit and entirely destroying a small patch of green peas in my 

 garden. (Nov. 18, 1892.) 



Six grosbeak stomachs were sent in from this and other gardens 

 where the birds had access to peas, but examination disclosed peas 

 in only two of them, constituting in one case 10 percent of the 

 stomach contents and in the other 80 percent. Peas were found in 

 one other stomach also, of the 176 examined, this having been col- 

 lected in Minnesota in July. It held 4 peas, which were 80 percent 

 of the contents. Were there no other evidence, the above is sufficient 

 to show that the rosebreast has a taste for green peas which is some- 

 times gratified at the expense of the gardener. 



Some observers believe, however, that the bird makes full repara- 

 tion for damage done. E. M. Hancock, of Waukon, Iowa, states: 



The rosebreasted grosbeak has more than made amends for its pea stealing 

 by its determined warfare upon the Colorado potato beetle, helping very ma- 

 terially to keep down this pest. (April, 1886.) 



, "Birds of Massachusetts, 1839, p. 329. 



