114 BULLETIN 326, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Food. — From January to July, inclusive, 55 stomachs of this bird were col- 

 lected and later examined in the laboratory. In the primary allotment animal 

 food amounted to 90.1 per cent and vegetable to 9.9 per cent for the period 

 under consideration. Weevils, other beetles, cutworms, and caterpillars com- 

 prise by far the greater bulk of the animal matter, while of the vegetable food 

 a little more than half is composed of corn. 



Animal food. — Feeding upon the ground, as other blackbirds do, and in the 

 trees, as its relatives the orioles do, a wide range of animal food is secured by 

 this bird. Orthopterous remains (1.95 per cent) in six birds are formed largely 

 of grasshopper eggs and the oothecse of roaches, though remains of adults were 

 found. Earwigs (Forficulidse) (1.37 per cent) secured in searching oriolelike 

 through the branches of trees were eaten by five birds. Homopterous remains 

 (5.7 per cent) are composed of tree hoppers and lantern flies, with bits of a 

 cicada. Other bug remains (3.36 per cent) are of predatory species in part at 

 least. Leaf beetles constitute only 1.69 per cent, though present in 18 instances. 

 Flea beetles and tortoise beetles were represented, though the larger number 

 were unknown species of the genus Cryptoceplialus. The cane root-boring 

 weevil {Diaprepes spengleri) was eaten nine times and amounts to 1.72 per 

 cent. Other scarred-snout beetles to which family this pest belongs comprise 

 10.15 per cent and were found in 16 of the gizzards. Among them were several 

 coffee leaf -weevils (Laclinopus sp.). Curculios total 2.13 per cent and other 

 weevil remains 1.92 per cent, so that weevils as a whole constitute nearly one- 

 sixth of the entire food. Cerainbycidse (0.81 per cent) were taken in small 

 quantities, and miscellaneous Coleoptera figure as 16.79 per cent. 



Caterpillars were found in 30 stomachs, lepidopterous pupae in 3, and a moth 

 in 1, all forming 28.32 per cent. A large part of those first enumerated were 

 cutworms, picked up in cultivated fields. The greatest quantities were eaten 

 in January and February. The remains of Hymenoptera (1.03 per cent) include 

 a number of ants and a wasp, as well as some unidentified fragments. Diptera 

 (3.65 per cent) were taken sporadically, the largest number being secured in 

 January. Spiders eaten by 13 birds amount to 7.S3 per cent, snails found in eight 

 instances figure as 1.56 per cent, while miscellaneous animal matter forms 0.43 

 per cent. A list of identified species follows : 



HEMIPTERA. 



Proarno hilaris 

 Phymata sp 



COLEOPTERA. 



Monocrep id ius t ifo veatus. 



Photinus glaucus 



Eouria sp 





coleoptera — continued. 





1 



1 



Cryptoceplialus sp 



Systena basalis 



Coptocycla signifera 



Anthicus floralis 



._ 18 

 2 

 1 

 1 



1 



Diaprepes spengleri 



Laclinopus sp 



9 



6 



R 



Euscepes porceJlus 



1 



1 



Aletamasius hemipterus : 



1 



Vegetable food. — More than one-half (5.73 per cent) of the vegetable food is 

 composed of corn taken entirely in May and June. For June it totals 36.87 per 

 cent and was present in 10 of the 15 stomachs examined for that month. In 

 May only 2 birds in 18 had taken any. In June flocks of these birds were feed- 

 ing in ripening fields of corn near Lares. The adults were feeding their young 

 out of the nest on the soft kernels taken from the ear. Though the birds were 

 not seen actually eating the grain, the terminal kernels of a small number of 

 ears in each field were missing, and bits of the grain were found in the bills and 

 throats of some of the birds shot. Two birds collected in a cornfield near 

 Ciales on July 17 had not touched the grain. 



Other vegetable food consisted of seeds of grass, a few unidentified seeds, 

 3.71 per cent in all, and a small quantity (0.35 per cent) c.f vegetable rubbish. 



