FOOD HABITS OF SOME WINTER BIRD VISITANTS. 23 



and the remaining four, represented by 56 stomachs collected in 

 Alaska and northern Canada, are discussed as summer months. 



Winter food. — Unfortunately over half the 600 stomachs used in 

 the study of winter food were collected in Kansas under very simi- 

 lar conditions. They were all taken in January and February and 

 tend to give undue prominence to millet and crabgrass, the seeds of 

 which constituted over 75 per cent of the January food and over 65 

 per cent of that eaten in February. As the millet was all waste 

 grain picked up in the stubble, this high proportion of a grain can 

 noti be held against the bird. 



Only 3.97 per cent of the food for the eight winter months con- 

 sisted of animal matter and nearly half of this was taken in April 

 by four birds that had fed almost exclusively on carabids of the 

 genera Platynus, Amara, and possibly others. The remainder con- 

 sisted of chrysomelids, weevils, fly larvae, caterpillars, and spiders 

 taken in varying quantities in every month except February. 



Of the 96.03 per cent of vegetable food, 61.73 per cent is 

 represented by grass seeds of various kinds, 30.56 per cent 

 being the seeds of foxtail (Chaetochloa lutescens and C. viridis) 

 eaten commonly by birds from all parts of the country. Cultivated 

 millet (Setaria italica), a closely related plant, contributed 10.01 

 per cent of the food. The seeds of these grasses are comparatively 

 large, easy to obtain, and plentiful, and the birds make the most of 

 them. 



Seeds of crabgrass (Syntherisma sanguinalis) formed 8.66 per 

 cent of the food, but most of them had been eaten by birds collected 

 in one locality in Kansas. Seeds of various species of witchgrass 

 (Panicum) made up 2.25 per cent of the food, and other grasses, 

 among which crabgrass {Syntherisma ischaemum), wild millet 

 (Echinochloa crusgalli), and goosegrass (Eleusine indica) were 

 frequently taken, furnished 10.51 per cent of the total. 



Sedges of various species had been eaten to the extent of 10.25 per 

 cent of the food, chiefly by birds taken in Montana, Ontario, and 

 Northwest Territories. Seventeen birds taken in October had eaten 

 sedge seed to the extent of 64.42 per cent of the food, while over 8 

 per cent of the subsistence for the months of April and May was 

 from this source. Seeds of purslane (Portulaca) were common in 

 the food, but being such small seeds they made only 0.82 per cent of 

 the bulk. Seeds of pigweed (Amaranthus) were freely eaten, 6.03 

 per cent of the total coming from the various species of this genus ; 

 and 6.4*9 per cent consisted of miscellaneous weed seed, among which 

 goosefoot (Chenop odium) and ragweed (Ambrosia) were most com- 

 mon, 



Wheat formed 8.33 per cent of the food and was eaten in every 

 one of the eight months except October. Three birds collected 

 while feeding on a newly sown field had eaten seeds of timothy 

 and wheat, and it is possible that the species may do some damage by 

 picking up newly sown grain or grass seeds. Other grain, chiefly 

 oats, and all of it waste, had been eaten to the extent of 1.41 per cent 

 of the food. Fragments of grass and unidentified vegetable debris 

 made up the remaining 0.97 per cent of the food. 

 . Summer food.— The food of the 56 birds collected in the months 

 from June to September in Alaska or northern Canada consisted 



