468 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [Vou. XXXIII. 
of coloring in animals, and that their very existence may often 
depend upon their being by these means concealed from their 
enemies.” I am surprised to find that grasshoppers (Acrididze 
and Locustidz) in spite of their protective coloration are eaten 
by over three hundred species of birds in the United States. 
Grasshoppers are eaten in large quantities by birds. They 
amount during the year, exclusive of the winter months, to 
19 per cent of the volume of the insect food in the catbird, 
25 per cent in the house wren, and 40 per cent in the meadow 
lark. In August 67 per cent of the red-winged blackbird’s 
food consists of grasshoppers, and for the same month this 
staple amounts to 70 per cent in the meadow lark. For the 
two months of May and June grasshoppers amount to 80 per 
cent of the insect food of the loggerhead shrike. Of course, 
in the tropics, where we have such marvelous special adapta- 
tions as are found in the Mantidz and leaf insects, there must 
be the most wonderful efficiency. 
It may be argued that many of the grasshoppers eaten belong 
to the less protected forms, but we know that Dissosteira caro- 
lina, which is practically invisible on the ground, is selected, 
and that it is no uncommon thing to find the remains of several 
Locustidz in stomachs. Whether these insects were taken 
when they were at rest, that is, when protective coloration 
is effective, is the great point and, so far as I have experi- 
mented with several birds, there seems every reason to believe 
that Acrididz at least do not, when at rest, successfully baffle 
birds. I put several admirably protected grasshoppers (Acri- 
didz) among the fallen brown oak leaves, where I found them 
with the greatest difficulty, in a cage with a song sparrow, a 
junco, and white-throated sparrows. The legs of the insects 
had been pulled off, so they kept perfectly still, but the birds 
instantly saw and seized the grasshoppers. I tried the same 
experiment in a large cage with mocking birds and got the 
same results. 
The great bulk of grasshoppers eaten by birds are Acridide, 
but stomachs containing a dozen Locustide are not at all 
uncommon. The Locustidz most commonly selected belong 
to the genera Scudderia, Orchelimum, and Xiphidium. Of 
