20 BULLETIN 868, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
this genus were identified in the food of the starling, and from 4 to 8 
individuals were frequently found in a single stomach. One bird 
collected in June had eaten 12. Approximately 300 of the 2,301 
adults had taken May beetles, most of them in May, when they 
formed 11.04 per cent of the food. Dung beetles of the genera 
Aphodius and Atznius were commonly eaten, and Canthon and 
Onthophagus less frequently. Investigations conducted in 1919 to 
determine the bird enemies of the recently imported Japanese 
beetle (Popillia japonica) revealed the fact that the starling preys 
also on this insect; 2 of 6 starlings collected at Riverton, N. J., in 
August, had fed on it. 
The Staphylinide (rove beetles), Chrysomelide (leaf beetles), 
Elateride (click beetles), Tenebrionide (darkling beetles), and 
others were taken in varying numbers. Most of these are small 
forms, and a considerable number could be destroyed without 
appreciably affecting the various percentages. Among the beetles 
of these families which were frequently eaten were many of economic 
interest, a few of which are here mentioned. Drasterius elegans, the 
larva of which is a wireworm that feeds on the roots of corn and 
other grains, had been eaten by 17 of the 2,301 adult starlings: 
Agriotes mancus, a species of similar habits, by 4; and Colaspis 
brunnea,-a small leaf beetle that attacks beans, strawberries, and 
other cultivated plants, by 56. 
Near Medford, N. J., it was stated that starlings had been seen 
working through a potato patch picking up potato beetles. Corrob- 
orative evidence was lent to this observation by finding the potato 
beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) in the stomachs of 24 of 2,301 adult © 
starlings and in 15 of 325 nestlmgs. Several birds had taken 4 indi- 
viduals, while two nestlings had been fed 6 and 7, respectively. Many 
other chrysomelids, all of which are more or less harmful, are included 
in the food of the starling, the genera Typophorus, Nodonota, Zygo- 
gramma, Calligrapha, Gallerucella, Oedionychis, and Chztocnema ap- 
pearing regularly, though in small numbers. 
The only darkling beetle taken in numbers was Opatrinus notus, 
found in the stomachs of 82 adults. Aside from these, a long list of 
other beetles, a few beneficial but most of them injurious, were iden- 
tified in small numbers. On the whole, it may be said that the evi- 
dence obtained by a study of the starling’s destruction of Coleoptera ° 
is overwhelmingly in the bird’s favor. 
ORTHOPTERA (Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Locusts). 
While grasshoppers are not the serious pest in the Hastern States 
that they sometimes become west of the Mississippi, they neverthe- 
less exact a certaim annual toil from crops. A conservative estimate 
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