16 
FARMERS 7 BULLETIN 755. 
and its preference for shrubbery further adapts it to living about dooryards and gardens. 
The nest, though usually placed low, is well concealed, and the eggs number three 
to five. 
Few complaints have been lodged against the painted bunting on the score of its 
food habits. It is said to eat rice at times, to peck into figs and grapes, and to bite off 
the tips of pecan shoots. In no case that has come to notice, however, has it been 
charged with doing serious damage. Certainly no such charge is supported by the 
investigations of the Biological Survey, for no product of husbandry has thus far been 
found in any of the stomachs, 80 of which have been examined, all collected in Texas 
in July, August, and September. Averages for the July and August material only 
are here presented. Animal matter composed 20.86 per cent of the contents of 
these stomachs, and vege¬ 
table matter 79.14 per cent. 
Of the former, 2.48 per 
cent was made up of 
weevils, mostly cotton boll 
weevils. All insects of this 
group are destructive, but 
none more so than the no¬ 
torious cotton boll weevil, 
and this species had been 
eaten by 18 of the 80 non¬ 
pareils examined. 
Another enemy of the 
cotton crop attacked by 
these brightly colored little 
birds is the cotton worm. 
This insect was preyed 
upon to the extent of 3.14 
per cent of the total food 
of the 80 painted buntings 
examined. Other insects 
eaten include grasshoppers, 
crickets, click beetles, leaf 
beetles, caterpillars, true 
bugs, and small hvmen- 
opterans. A few spiders 
and one snail also were 
taken. 
The vegetable food is re¬ 
markable in consisting very 
largely of a single item— - 
the seeds of foxtail or pigeon 
grass. This is one of the 
worst weeds in the United 
States. The 89 painted buntings made over two-thirds (precisely 67.03 per cent) 
of their total food of its seeds. The seeds of other grasses composed 5.88 per cent of 
the food, grasses alone thus furnishing over nine-tenths of the vegetable portion. 
The other vegetable matter eaten consists largely of saeds of such weeds as amaranth, 
mallow, sorrel, and nail grass. 
To sum up, practically all of the vegetable food of the painted bunting is of weed seeds 
two-thirds of it being the seeds of foxtail grass, one of the worst weed pests. The animal 
food also is composed almost exclusively of injurious species, more than a fourth of it 
consisting of the two greatest pests of the cotton crop — the cotton worm and the boll 
weevil. — w. l. m. 
B2 147-66 
Fig. 7.—Fainted bunting. Length, about 5 J inches. 
