16 BULLETIN 868, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
It must be remembered that in ascertaining the economic worth of a 
bird not all the insects eaten can be placed to its credit, as many are 
of great value because of their predacious or parasitic habits. 
CoLEOPTERA (Beetles). 
Of the 41.55 per cent .of sect food consumed by the starling, 
nearly half (19.59 per cent) consists of beetles. These are divided 
among numerous families, but weevils, carabids, and ee 
the order named, are of the greatest Importance. 
The Rhynchophora, or weevils, a first among the Coleoptera 
in the proportion of food furnished, 8.5 per cent of the starling’s 
food being from this source. In feodnne on this group the poe 
is doing a very useful work, as the snout beetles include some of 
the most destructive insects with which man has to deal. Weevyils 
are eaten every month in the year. The smallest quantity taken in 
any one month was 3.13 per cent in October, and the largest, 20.16 
per cent in a winter month, February. An examination of the 
monthly percentage table (p. 39) shows that there are two periods 
of the year in which weevils form over 10 per cent of the food. The 
first is in July (13.36 per cent) and August (10.91), when many 
species are emerging: and the second is in January (14.10) and Feb- 
ruary (20.16), when the starlings are feeding on hibernating forms. 
One of the most interesting food habits of the starling is in its rela- 
tion to the clover leaf weevil (Hypera punctata), a European insect 
which has long been introduced and acclimated in the United States 
and which does serious damage to the clover crop in some seasons. It 
is known that the starling habitually feeds on this insect in England, 
but it apparently goes far beyond its normal habit in feedmg on it 
in this country. Nearly half (1,125) of the 2,301 adult birds exam- 
‘Ined had eaten clover leaf weevils, and 12 had taken their larve. 
Of these no less than 54 had taken 10 or more weevils for one meal 
and 106 had taken from 5 to 10 weevils. The largest number of 
larve eaten was 49, taken by a bird collected in New Jersey in May. 
These formed 38 per cent of the stomach contents. Twenty-six 
was the greatest number of adults from one stomach, and these, 
together with 6 other weevils, formed 95 per cent of the food. In 
February, 288 of the 398 stomachs examined contained remains of 
this beetle, and in January, 33 of 84. In July, 211 of 375 birds and 
in August, 216 of 347 had taken this weevil. 
In every month of the year the starling is searching the grasslands 
and weed patches for the clover leaf weave The high percentage 
revealed in January and February would seem to indicate that 
_Hypera punctata hibernates in far greater numbers than has been 
commonly believed, for it is scarcely conceivable that so many dead 
insects would be left in as good condition as are many of these this 
