98 
The Food of Birds. 
fact which indicates a remarkable fixity of food habits, 
unaffected by twenty years of time and a distance of a 
thousand miles. The caterpillars were partly cutworms, 
about one-third of them being recognized as the “ speck- 
led cutworm” ( Mamestra subjuncta, G. &R.), a species 
supposed to be injurious to cabbages.* Coleoptera oc- 
curred in the stomachs of these birds only in small num- 
bers, comprising about four per cent, of the food. Half 
of these were Carabidae, eaten by six of the eleven birds, 
a fourth were scavenger beetles ( Aphodius inquinatus) 
and a fourth were larvae of Lampyridae, including one of 
Chauliognathus. A few fragments of curculios were also 
found. 
Grasshoppers were present in about the same quantity 
as beetles, but only two birds had eaten them. One had 
taken Tragocephala infuscata and another a Tettigidea. 
The Hemiptera (one per cent.) were chiefly soldier- 
bugs (Pentatomidae), eaten by five of the birds. The 
spiders had been taken by two birds, and one had eaten 
a small thousand-legs (lulus). 
The striking feature of the month is the great predom- 
inance of the larva of Bibio in the food, a fact which will 
seem of small or great importance according to our views 
of the habits of this larva. By Dr. Fitch, former state 
entomologist of New York, as quoted by Prof. Jenks,f it 
was believed to be especially injurious to grass lands, 
and the robin was therefore credited with an indispen- 
sable service to the farmer. Dr. Fitch gave no actual ob- 
servations, however, and his opinion was apparently 
speculative. Mr. Walsh t and Prof. Riley have since re- 
ported that the larva feeds only on decaying vegetation 
and is therefore harmless, if not indeed useful. Prof. 
Riley has, in fact, reared it in rotten leaves where no liv- 
ing vegetation was accessible. Finding tlie robin feeding 
on it so excessively in spring, I took some specimens 
from among the roots of grass and weeds in a raspberry 
garden and others from the stomach of a robin, examined 
* Prof. Riley, by whom my specimens were determined, says that he 
reared the larvae on cabbage, which it ate voraciously. 
t .Journal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Poston, March, 
1859, p. 152. 
% The Practical Entomologist, Vol. 2, No. 4, p. 45, January, 1867. 
