Alabama, ipi8. 45 



vegetation. A few bones and other tissues of a small unidentified 

 vertebrate taken in June complete the animal food. 



The vegetable food of the Carolina chickadee consists chiefly 

 of fruit and seeds. Blackberries or raspberries, found in two stom- 

 achs ; blueberries, in one ; and fruit pulp not further identified, in five, 

 constitute 2.17 per cent of the food for the year. Seeds of poison 

 ivy (10.07 per cent for the year) appear to be a favorite food in the 

 colder months, but only the waxy coating is eaten. This is taken 

 off and swallowed and the real seed rejected, so that the bird does 

 not aid in the distribution of this noxious plant as do so many birds 

 that swallow the seeds and afterwards either disgorge them or pass 

 them through the alimentary canal to fall and germinate in a differ- 

 ent locality. 



Other seeds, most of them so broken and ground up as to be 

 unidentifiable, were eaten to the extent of 12.38 per cent, chiefly in 

 the colder months. In nine stomachs taken during this season 

 were pieces of liverwort, a plant of the lower order that grows 

 upon the bark of trees or damp rocks. This seems a very curious 

 food for a bird, and is probably taken when other supplies are 

 scarce. 



In a resume of the food of the Carolina chickadee, one is im- 

 pressed with the fact that a large proportion consists of the eggs, 

 pupae, and larvae of noxious insects. As an enemy of caterpillars the 

 bird has few peers. It also destroys a great many of those two 

 pests of horticulture, plant lice and scales. — F. B. L. B. in Farmers' 

 Bulletin. 



