44 Bird Day Book 



While no special pest was noted, nearly all of these are harmful and 

 especially the last two, of which there are hundreds of species and 

 nearly every plant has its own peculiar form. 



The real food of the Carolina chickadee consists of moths and 

 caterpillars. Moths were found in only 1 stomach, their pupae in 16, 

 their eggs in 30, and their larvae (caterpillars) in 138, or about two- 

 thirds of those examined. The month of greatest consumption is 

 October, when they amount to more than three-fourths of the food 

 (78.1 per cent). The month of least consumption is December, 

 when they still aggregate more than a tenth of the yearly food 

 (11.74 per cent). The average for the year (44.43 per cent) is 

 exceeded by cuckoos, but by few if any other birds. Chickadees 

 have a habit of beating their prey to pieces on a branch of a tree 

 before swallowing it, so that the stomachs contain only fragments 

 not easy to identify. It is probable that in these were many notorious 

 pests, for the pupae of codling moths were recognized in five stom- 

 achs and the eggs that produce one of the tent caterpillars in two. 



Tike many other tree-inhabiting species, the Carolina chickadee 

 eats very few grasshoppers, but some were taken irregularly through 

 the year (1.04 per cent). In five months, including August, the 

 grasshopper month, none were eaten at all, and but few at other 

 times. So far as stomach records show no genuine grasshoppers 

 were eaten, but only some of their allies in their lowest or first stage, 

 viz, the egg. In 11 stomachs were found the eggs of katydids; in 

 5 the egg cases of cockroaches; in 1 a grasshopper's egg; and in 

 another a cricket's jaw. 



Flies are practically ignored. What were probably the eggs of 

 a crane fly were found in one stomach, but no adult flies were noted. 



Spiders seem very palatable to the chickadee, being eaten every 

 month and showing a higher percentage (10.9 per cent) in the 

 stomachs than any other animal food except caterpillars. In five 

 stomachs collected in March they amounted to 44.6 per cent, but a 

 greater number of stomachs would probably modify this record. One 

 stomach was practically filled with the remains of sowbugs. These 

 appear to be the only animal food eaten that can not be obtained 

 from a tree, shrub, or weed, and it is not clear how the chickadee 

 could get them, for sowbugs are essentially terrestrial in habit and 

 are usually found under a stone, clod, or mass of practically decayed 



