40 
NOTES ON THE FOOD OF BIRDS 
search the branches and bark of the trees for codling moth 
cocoons and are death on grubs. The jay, the woodpecker, 
sapsucker and all their tribe work all winter long and eat no 
end of grubs, larvae and chrysalids. These should be pro¬ 
tected by every means possible; in fact, I don't know any 
birds that ought not to be protected. I believe they all do a 
great deal more good than harm, although we don’t always 
know it.” 
Bullock’s oriole eating caterpillars 
Mr. Emerson Atkins has observed these birds (Icterus 
bullocJd ) in the mountains near Las Vegas busily feeding on 
caterpillars (Clisiocampa fragilis), which are clustered on the 
willows and wild plum trees, and which are so destructive to 
foliage on the Pecos Forest Reserve. This happened in the 
spring, when the work of the birds was most timely, and. 
there can be no doubt that much good was done. 
SOriE niSCELLANEOUS NOTES 
Birds flying long distances between meals 
It must not always be assumed that the food found in a 
bird's stomach was eaten near the place where the bird was 
shot. Mr. Birtwell informs me that an American Merganser 
(.Merganser Arnericanus) shot by Air. W. H. Cobb at Albu¬ 
querque had in its stomach a piece of salt water sea-weed 
( Fucus ) and salt water perch partly digested. A gull shot near 
Las Vegas Oct. 22nd, 1900, had in its stomach many grass¬ 
hoppers, which were identified by Mr. S. H. Scudder as 
Encoptolophus, probably A. parvus , and Melanoplus compactus. 
Although thirty-one species of Melanoplus have been collected 
in New Mexico, M. compactus , which is known from Dakota 
and Nebraska, has never been collected there. 
Some years ago the writer found a new species of Crus¬ 
tacea in a warm spring near Socorro, N, M. This creature, 
which was described by Miss Harriet Richardson as Sphceroma 
therrnophilum, belongs to a marine genus and family, and must 
undoubtedly have been derived originally from the sea, 
though it has been isolated long enough in the spring to have 
