DRAGONI^LIES AND DAMSElvFUES IN PONDFISH CUI.TURE. 223 



This destruction by the BngHsh sparrows is local and apparently casual; in the summer 

 of 1 91 7 they did not destroy as many of the tenerals as in 191 6. It seems to be largely 

 a matter of chance; if they happen upon the tenerals at just the right time and get a 

 good meal, they return again and again. The localities frequented by the tenerals are 

 not the ones from which these sparrows are accustomed to get their food, however, and 

 hence there is no systematic hunting for them. 



Another bird that causes great destruction among the imagos is the red-winged 

 blackbird. Several pairs of these birds nested about the ponds, and they were seen 

 repeatedly catching the tenerals and eating them or feeding them to their young. A 

 small stake projecting a few inches above the water in pond 2 was a favorite roosting 

 place for one of the male redwings, and from the algse surrounding this stake were picked 

 up more than 100 teneral wings of Lihellula luctuosa. During experiments with the 

 large breeding cage mentioned elsewhere (p. 235) adult dragonflies of several species and 

 of both sexes were caught and placed in the cage. Every effort was made to induce 

 them to eat, to mate, and to lay their eggs, but to no avail. One of the chief hindrances 

 was an old male redwing who made it his duty to visit the cage as soon as possible after 

 the dragonflies were placed in it and to pick them off through the wires. In this way 

 he would have them all caught and devoured within a short time. 



Kennedy (191 5, p. 343) found teneral damselflies and dragonflies in the stomachs 

 of four yellow-headed and one red-winged blackbird which he examined. He also 

 stated on the same page that he believed the yellow-headed blackbirds ate most of the 

 teneral Anax junius at one of the ponds where he collected. Other species, such as 

 Erythemis simplicicollis , ^schna multicolor, and A. calif ornica escaped this peril of the 

 birds by emerging late in the evening, so that by daylight the next morning their wings 

 were hard enough to fly. 



Both E. simplicicollis and L. luctuosa roost at night in the tall grass and other 

 vegetation around the ponds, and when there is a rain in the night, or an exceptionally 

 heavy dew, are sometimes so bedraggled in the early morning that they are caught by 

 the birds. 



In a later paper Kennedy (191 7, p. 530) has noted that Ophiogomphus morris oni at 

 Donner Lake, Oreg., was seriously attacked by robins while emerging. 



In the Canadian Entomologist, volume 5, 1873, p. 159, Mr. Gould, in a communica- 

 tion to the Entomological Society of London, said: 



I believe that the larger dragonflies are very liable to the attacks of birds, and have no doubt that 

 the hobby and kestrel occasionally feed upon them; with regard to the small blue-bodied species 

 (Agrionidse) frequenting the sedgy bank of the Thames, I have seen smaller birds, sparrows, etc., 

 capture and eat them before my eyes after having carefully nipped off the wings, which are not 

 swallowed. This must take place to a considerable extent, as I have observed the towpath strewn 

 with the rejected wings. 



The hobby and the kestrel are English hawks, but Fisher (1893) has recorded the 

 swallow-tailed kite, the sharp-shinned hawk, the red-shouldered hawk, the broad- 

 winged hawk, the duck hawk, the sparrow hawk, and the pigeon hawk as feeding on 

 dragonflies here in the United States. 



Tillyard (191 7, p. 330) has stated that kingfishers are wonderfully expert at catching 

 dragonflies skimming close to the water. That may be true of the kingfishers of 

 Australia and New Zealand, but it is doubtful if our own belted kingfisher of the eastern 



