12 BULLETIN 107, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
flanked both sides of the stream, whatever was learned here concern- 
ing the magpie as a weevil enemy must be regarded as having been 
obtained under most favorable conditions. 
Nestlings. — A series of 134 stomachs of nestlings was secured in 
May, and in 79 the weevil was found. It usually occurred in small 
numbers, the average for the lot being 4.8 weevils per bird, which 
amounted to 2.42 per cent of the food. Some, however, had eaten 
considerable numbers of the breeding adults. A half-fledged young 
had been fed 74 of the insects, and 5 others had eaten, respectively, 
62, 55, 33, 26, and 24. 
Examination of these stomachs shows how omnivorous are these 
birds, no less than 85 different items being recognized, besides large 
quantities of carrion and rubbish. In the material identified were 
six orders of insects, spiders, a shrimp, mollusks, a reptile, batra- 
chians, earthworms, three species of birds, four of mammals, and 
seeds of eight species of plants. As each of these items has a differ- 
ent economic significance, the problem of the value of the magpie is 
complicated. 
The largest animal food item was caterpillars (22.1 per cent), 
which occurred in 104 stomachs. Many of these were cutworms, 
gleaned from alfalfa fields along with the weevil. The remains of 
small mammals and carrion of many forms amounted to 14.75 and 
11.86 per cent, respectively. Among the mammal remains were 
recognized meadow mice (Microtus), ground squirrels {Citelhis 
mollis), a gopher (Thomo?n<ys), and a shrew (Sorex leiicogenys). 
Associated with the carrion were large numbers of muscid pupa? and 
larvae, which comprised 16.34 per cent of the stomach contents. It 
appeared from some of the material that parent birds visited a car- 
cass of a beef or horse and removed only dipterous larvse and pupae, 
leaving the putrid animal matter as a breeding ground for more of 
the same. The stomachs of many young birds were nearly filled 
with the dipterous remains, only a few black or brown hairs indi- 
cating the source of the food. Ground beetles formed 5.15 per cent 
of the food, and miscellaneous Coleoptera, members of the genera 
Necropho7*us and Silpha predominating, 4.05 per cent. Other insect 
food was divided in small quantities under several heads. 
Other components of the animal food economically highly impor- 
tant were the remains of chickens and wild birds and their eggs. The 
feathers of what appeared to be a young chicken were found in 
the stomachs of two young birds of the same brood while fragments 
of eggshell occurred in 22 of the 134 collected. The entire stomach 
contents of one young magpie consisted of eggshell and what ap- 
peared to be its partially incubated contents. Another stomach was 
about four-fifths full of similar material. 
