( xli ) 



The beetles chiefly found in the stomachs of the birds, 

 putting them in the order of frequency of occurrence, were as 

 follows : — 



1. Otiorrhynchidee, Curculionidx and Scolytldx (chiefly larvae of 

 the latter) : remains of the two first of these families 

 occurred in 90 per cent, of all insect-eating birds. 



2. Scarabseida?, chiefly Aphodins and Geotrupes. 



3. Elateridae. Larvae (wire worms) and imagines, chiefly the 



latter. 



4. Geodephaga. The genus C ambus and its allies. 



5. Longicornia of the genus Rhagiwm. 



6. Halticidse. Phyllotreta, Thyamis, etc. 



The Coccinellida? as a rule appear to be much disliked, but 

 are occasionally eaten. Mr. Newstead has a few records of 

 their occurrence in the stomachs of Hirundinidse, and his 

 father in 1891 published in the "Entomologist" (xxiv, p. 

 122) a very interesting account of their being eaten by the 

 Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus, L.) : this gull is fond of 

 large moths which it catches in summer on the wing, and Mr. 

 Newstead, having noticed a number of these birds hawking for 

 insects like swallows over the tops of some trees, shot one 

 which, on its fall, voided thirty or forty specimens of a 

 Coccinella : on the same page Mr. McArthur records the 

 occurrence of elytra of Coccinellidre in the stomachs of 

 cuckoos : these birds seem to be as abnormal in their food as 

 in their habits, for they are, apparently, fond of nauseous larvae 

 such as those of Abraxas grossulariata, which, as far as we know, 

 are most distasteful to other birds. Mr. Newstead also records 

 (" Entomologist," xxiv, p. 100) the discovery by himself of four 

 fresh specimens of a Coccinellid (Hippodamia mutabilis) in a 

 specimen of the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Picas major, L.) ; 

 the stomach of this bird was filled with half-digested larva3 of 

 Rhagium bifasciatum, thus proving that the insects were not 

 eaten from stress of hunger ; and quite recently Mr. Tutt in 

 the December number of the " Entomologists' Record " (p. 355) 

 records the fact that a number of starlings were shot some 

 time ago by the same observer, and that their crops were 

 full of Mysia oblong oguttata. 



I have gone into this question at some length, as there is a 



PROC. ENT. SOO. LOND., V. 1901. E 



