52 



FOOD HABITS OF THE GROSBEAKS. 



browntail, the hairs of which so irritate human flesh, also is eagerly 

 eaten, and other caterpillars clothed with spines were found in the 

 stomachs examined. In several gizzards, indeed, a mass of branching 

 caterpillar spines was all that remained to show the nature of the 



r;%^' 



S$# 



Fig. 29. — Orchard tent-caterpillar (Malacosomu americana). (From Riley, Bureau of 



Entomology.) 



food. It is evident that neither hairs nor even pricking, stinging 

 spines are adequate to protect a caterpillar from a hungry grosbeak. 

 Besides Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera, which have 

 been discussed in the order named, but one group of insects of impor- 

 tance in the dietary of 



/l// / ll \l l\\ I 1 1 /)/// l\/\ I ^ ie rose b reas t remains, 



that of true bugs 

 ( Hemiptera ) , includ- 

 ing the stink bugs, 

 tree hoppers, plant lice, 

 and scale insects. From 

 this miscellaneous as- 

 semblage the grosbeak 

 selects 3.89 per cent of 

 its food, and two- 

 thirds of this amount consists of the minute pests known as scale 

 insects. From an economic standpoint also the latter are of great- 

 est importance, as they rank among the worst enemies of agriculture 

 in the United States. Orchards, both of the deciduous and citrus 



Fig. 30. 



-Gipsy moth caterpillar (Porthetria 

 (From Bureau of Entomology.) 



dispar) . 



