COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 
25 
accommodation. A bird of forests and groves, if is not found on treeless areas, and does 
not often alight upon the ground. From this it follows that its food is mostly of the 
kind that can be taken on trees or bushes, and, therefore, excludes such ground-inhab¬ 
iting insects as ants and grasshoppers. 
The study of the food habits of the Carolina chickadee is based upon an examination 
of the contents of 210 stomachs collected in the Southeastern States. The food con¬ 
sisted of 71.94 per cent animal matter and 28.06 per cent vegetable, the former being 
made up of insects and 
spiders with a few sowbugs, 
found in one stomach, and 
the latter of berries and 
several kinds of seeds. 
Beetles, being rather ter¬ 
restrial in habit, escape the 
chickadees to some extent , 
forming only 3.67 per cent 
of their food. Nearly half 
of these were snout beetles, 
or weevils, of which prac¬ 
tically all species are more 
or less harmful and many 
are pests. The predacious 
ground beetles apparently 
elude these birds complete¬ 
ly, for not a trace of one 
was found in any of the 210 
stomachs. 
A few ants were taken in 
the months from February 
to June, except May, but 
the average for the year is 
only 0.36 per cent. Bees 
and wasps (4.48 per cent of 
the food of the year) were 
taken oftener and more 
regularly. The month of 
greatest consumption was 
February, which would ap¬ 
pear to be rather early for 
bees and wasps to be out 
extensively, and March 
stands next. 
Bugs seem to be a favorite 
food in the four months from 
April to July, during which 
the great bulk is eaten. 
The average for these Fig. 13.— Carolina chickadee. Length, about 4£ inches. 
months is 15.13 per cent, 
but for the whole year it is only 5.68 per cent, as bugs were eaten in only three of the 
other eight months and then but sparingly. This item of food is made up of stink- 
bugs, shield bugs, leal'hoppers, tree-hoppers, plant lice, and scales. While no special 
pest was noted, nearly all of these are harmful and especially the last two, of which 
there are hundreds of species and nearly every plant has its own peculiar form. 
The real food of the Carolina chickadee consists of moths and caterpillars. Moths 
were found in only 1 stomach, their pupae in 16, their eggs in 20, and their larvae 
B2I53 70 
