150 
The Food of Birds. 
March. 
Twenty-one specimens were examined which had been 
shot in this month, in 1880, ranging from the 7th to the 
31st. Seven of these were shot at Normal, nine at Hey- 
worth (fifteen miles south) and five at Galena, in extreme 
northwestern Illinois. These latter differed from the cen- 
tral Illinois specimens chiefly in the presence of the dried 
and sometimes mouldy fruit of the 'sumach ( Rhus glabra ) 
in their stomachs, indicating a scarcity of desirable food 
at that early season. One of these, unfortunately for the 
record of the month, had stuffed itself with larvae of Har- 
palus, which made ninety-three per cent, of its food. 
Ichneumonidse (Arenetra) appear again (four per 
cent.), for the last time during the season. 
Harpalid beetles and their larvae were unusually abun- 
dant, making up eleven per cent, of the food of the month. 
Among these Platynus, Evarthrus, Pterostichus, Amara, 
Chlcenius tomentosus, Agonoderus and Harpalus were 
recognized. The larvae of soldier-beetles also occur, con- 
stituting four per cent, of the food, but do not appear 
again throughout the year. Four birds had eaten a pre- 
daceous bug ( Coriscus , near ferus ),* which is too minute 
to figure in the ratios ; and four per cent, of the food was 
Pentatomidae, of which only Peribalus modestus was 
recognizable. Sixteen of the twenty-one birds had eaten 
spiders, making five per cent, of the food. The beneficial 
insects thus amount to twenty-eight per cent. On the, 
other hand, thirty-eight per cent, was caterpillars, chiefly 
Noctuidae,t including Callimorpha lecontei and the army- 
worm ( Leucania unipuncta) ; one per cent, was Euryomia 
inda , and twenty-one per cent, was Orthoptera (crickets 
and grasshoppers), the injurious species thus rising to 
sixty per cent. One bird had also eaten a minute curcu- 
lio. Among neutral elements we enumerate Aphodii 
three per cent., IulidaB three per cent., and sumach ber- 
ries four per cent. Two birds had eaten ants, but in 
trivial .quantity. 
* Kindly identified for me by Mr. Uhler. < 
t I have thus reported all smooth caterpillars in which the cervical aK j| 
anal shields, common to most cutworms, were distinguished. A few si n 
caterpillars are not Noctuids, but are equally injurious. 
