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FOOD HABITS OF SOME WINTEB BIRD VISITANTS. 11 



wild fruit pulp and skins (the entire contents of two stomachs), 

 4.88 per cent, and rubbish (two stomachs full of bits of wood and 

 other debris and a third partly filled), 7.07 per cent, complete the 

 list of vegetable food. 



Coleoptera, both adults and larvae, found in small quantities 

 in six stomachs, made up 2.09 per cent of the summer food. With 

 the exception of one wireworm, the larvae were those of weevils 

 found within the pine seeds. Fragments of Hymenoptera were iden- 

 tified in two stomachs, but they did not amount to as much as 

 1 per cent of the contents of either. Hemiptera had been taken by 

 eight birds to the extent of 6.56 per cent of the food. Plant-lice 

 (Aphididae) filled one stomach and in three others occurred in 

 smaller quantities. Several birds had eaten spittle insects (Cerco- 

 pidae). Caterpillars and one moth formed 8.65 per cent of the 

 food. An insect gall found in one stomach and a number of insect 

 eggs in another complete the animal matter. 



It is evident that a larger number of stomachs collected at this 

 season would have added other items to the food of the crossbill, as 

 the variety in the diet was considerably greater than in winter. O. 

 W. Knight 10 has listed the following, in addition to the seeds of 

 conifers, as entering into the food of this species: Beetles, ants, 

 plant-lice, larvae of Vanessa antiopa (a spring butterfly), and 

 other insects ; buds of elm, maple, birch, alder, poplar, and willow ; 

 and seeds of birch and alder. He states also that these birds have 

 been reported as feeding on scraps from salt pork barrels. 



Otho C. Poling 11 has observed the birds feeding on frozen apples 

 and on buds of cottonwood ; Mary Mann Miller 12 saw them feeding 

 on larvae of the forest tent caterpillar (Clisiocampa disstria) ; 

 Thomas Mcllwraith 13 has recorded their eating seeds of sunflowers 

 and digging seeds from a squash left out during the winter; and 

 K. P. Currie, of the Bureau of Entomology, also reports them as 

 feeding on sunflower seeds in a North Dakota garden (August 17, 

 1891). 



Both Dr. A. K. Fisher and Merritt Cary have noted crossbills feed- 

 ing on the ground, picking seeds from fallen cones ; and the former 

 has watched them carry small cones to a low branch and hold them 

 while extracting the seeds. Dr. C. Hart Merriam has observed them 

 feeding on beechnuts; C. E. Ward has seen them eating hemp seed; 

 F. S. Dace has reported them feeding on elm seeds; and A. H. 

 Phillips states that he has watched one devouring the fruit of the 

 flowering crab (Pyims floribunda) . 



Little complaint of damage by this bird has ever been made. A. L. 

 Reed reports that in Broome County, N. Y., in April and May of 

 1884 the red crossbills did considerable damage to buds of apple, 

 pear, and cherry trees. Townend Glover 14 states that they did con- 

 siderable damage in the northerly localities by tearing open apples to 

 obtain the seeds. F. H. King 15 Wys that in midsummer of 1868 the 

 crossbills appeared in great numbers in western Maine and proved 

 very destructive to oats, disappearing again as soon as the harvest 



w The birds of Maine, p. 378. 1908. 

 11 The Auk, vol. 7, p. 239, July, 1890. 

 ^The Auk, vol. 16, p. 362, October, 1889. 



13 The birds of Ontario, 2d ed., p. 299, 1894. 



14 U. S. Agricultural Report, 1865-66, p. 42 



"Economic relations of Wisconsin birds: Geol. Surv. Wisconsin, vol. 1, l8io-«!>, p. o34. 



