38 
NOTES ON THE FOOD OF BIRDS 
I have not been able to find out. The cock bird is all bright 
yellow with black bars on the wings, a red head, a reddish 
breast; and the hen is all greenish yellow. (Evidently the 
Louisiana tanager, as Mr. E. Atkins suggested to me). This 
is a very bad bird on all the fruit. The bunting is another 
bad bird; it with the ‘redpoll' eats the leaf and fruit buds of 
the trees, especially peach buds, and does a great deal of mis¬ 
chief in the earliest spring when the buds are just beginning 
to swell. Many other birds eat cherries, of course, but none 
do any appreciable damage except the above. I do not think 
that any birds ought to be systematically destroyed; all fruit 
eaters are insect-eaters, and their absence would be very 
quickly felt in the increased ravages of insect pests on all 
kinds of cultivated fruits, vegetables and flowers.” 
THE GOOD DONE BY BIRDS 
Insects eaten 
Red-backed Junco.—Stomachs of birds shot by Mr. E. 
Atkins on the upper Sapello River, N. M., contained beetles 
and scales of lepidoptera. In one case some seeds were 
found. The stomach of a bird from the Rio de las Casas con¬ 
tained small seeds and remains of insects. 
Western Flycatcher.—One shot 'by Mr. E. Atkins on the 
upper Sapello River had remains of beetles in its stomach. 
Audubon’s Warber.—A bird shot by Mr. Atkins on the 
Rio de las Casas had in its stomach remains of beetles, and 
the head of a small green bee of the genus Halictus, appar¬ 
ently Halictus ruidosensis. 
The above are fair samples of the results of the examina¬ 
tion of the stomach-contents of various small birds. The 
number of insects eaten is immense, but they are not all in¬ 
jurious species. The little green bee (Halictus), for instance, 
is beneficial as a carrier of pollen, and does no harm. 
Weed seeds eaten 
Birds eat great numbers of seeds of weeds, and are con¬ 
sidered therein beneficial, though they doubtless also aid in 
