300 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
were of great assistance in distinguishing the parents when they came 
to the nest at the same time or in rapid succession. In the tables the 
four young will be designated as A, B, C, and D. 
During the day the parents made 169 visits to the nest with food. 
The first feeding was recorded at 4:20 A. M. and the last at 8:03 P. M., 
the active day being 15 hours and 43 minutes. This would be an 
average of one feeding every 5.57 minutes. Of the total of 169 visits, 
85 were made by the male and 84 by the female. These were not made 
in regular alternate turns but very irregularly, sometimes four or five 
trips being made by one bird between the visits of the other. Table I 
will show something of the variety and amount of the food. 
Unidentified 
Grasshoppers 
Maybeetles . 
Cutworms . . 
Spiders .... 
Earthworms 
Crickets .... 
Flies 
Damsel flies 
Centipede . . , 
Wire worm . 
Dragonflies , 
Beetles 
Cherries . . . 
Totals . 
TABLE I. 
By male 
By f emale 
Total 
. . 6 
9 
15 
23 
38 
. . 35 
30 
65 
.. 15 
14 
29 
. . 8 
10 
18 
. . 2 
8 
10 
. . 8 
5 
13 
2 
2 
2 
2 
.. 1 
1 
1 
1 
.. 1 
1 
. . 2 
1 
3 
.. 16 
3 
19 
.. 109 
108 
217 
From this table it will be seen that out. of 217 insects, cherries, etc,,, 
fed to the nestlings, 109 were brought by the male and 108 by the female, 
a very equal division of the work. 
Some significant facts concerning the economic value of this species 
are revealed in this table. Grasshoppers, cutworms, and maybeetles 
furnish over one half the food supply. The exact figures are : grass- 
hoppers 38 out of a total of 217 morsels fed, or 17.51% ; maybeetles 65, 
or 29.95% ; and cutworms 29, or 13.36% of the total. These three va- 
rieties thus make up a total of 132 out of the 217, or 60.82%. These 
forms are very destructive in the small truck farms of the immediate 
vicinity, particularly the cut worms and the larvae of the maybeetles. 
