38 FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS, 



Wheat. — A certain quantity of wheat also may be taken from the 

 heads, but no complaints of such damage have been received, the only 

 observation at hand which bears upon the point being that of Audu- 

 bon. Referring to a brood of young rose-breasted grosbeaks in the 

 vicinity of Cincinnati, he says : a " The parents fed them on the soft 

 grains of wheat which they procured in a neighboring field." Four 

 grosbeaks out of the 176 examined had fed upon wheat. That ob- 

 tained by 1 collected in Connecticut in May is obviously waste, but 

 3 birds, which had eaten wheat during July and August in Iowa and 

 Illinois, may have attacked standing grain. These 4 birds obtained 

 about 3 kernels of wheat each, which is an average of less than a 

 fourteenth of a kernel apiece for the 176 grosbeaks examined. Now, 

 if the proportion of grosbeaks eating wheat, 4 to 176, or thereabouts, 

 holds true for this species at large, and the birds do not exceed the 

 moderate average of 3 kernels each, it would require the united ef- 

 forts of the grain eaters among some 300,000 grosbeaks to consume a 

 quart (21,000 kernels) of average wheat. It is evident, therefore, 

 that the rosebreast's wheat-eating habits can not be termed injurious. 



To sum up the rosebreast's relation to grain crops, as shown by 

 the present investigation, 15 birds out of a total of 176 fed upon 

 grain, including oats, wheat, and corn. Wheat and corn eaten by 4 

 of these very probably was waste, while 3 birds had taken corn from 

 a crib, and 4 had eaten oats which may have come from newly sown 

 fields. In both cases the injury was easily preventable. Six gros- 

 beaks, consuming one or the other of the grains mentioned, may have 

 pilfered standing crops. This latter injury to grain constitutes the 

 only real case against the bird, and involves only 1.17 percent of 

 the total food of the birds examined. If this ratio holds true for the 

 entire species, the damage is of no special consequence. This view is 

 further strengthened by the fact that no complaints have been made 

 of injury to standing grain, the only stage in which it is subject to 

 attack under the best methods of culture. 



BUDS. 



All grosbeaks are usually thought to feed much on buds, and none 

 of the species are believed to be more fond of them than the rose- 

 breast. Most writers have commented on this habit of the rose- 

 breast, and it is referred to also by many correspondents. However, 

 buds were found in but 2 of the stomachs examined, while flowers of 

 trees were found in 4, and it is quite possible that more of the records 

 of field observers relate to flowers than to buds. Among trees whose 

 buds are said to be devoured are beech, cherry, pear, wild plum, soft 



a Birds of America, III, 1841, p. 210. 



f 



