COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 
15 
While the parrot-bill consumes a smaller proportion of animal matter than the cardi¬ 
nal, it selects about the same things, the principal items being grasshoppers, cater¬ 
pillars, and beetles. Neither parasitic hymenopterans nor predacious beetles were 
found in the stomachs examined, a showing much to the bird s credit. Only one useful 
insect had been eaten, it belonging to a queer neuropteroid genus, the members 
which are rare. They are predacious when adult, and when young are parasitic in the 
egg sacs of spiders. 
The remaining animal food is composed of injurious species, many of them important 
pests. Beetles constitute 4.66 per cent of the food, weevils alone being 3.42. Of 
greatest interest among the latter is the cotton boll weevil, the most serious agricultural 
pest of recent years. While the gray grosbeak does not feed upon it regularly, never¬ 
theless the habit of picking it up when occasion offers is highly commendable. Leaf 
beetles, bronzy wood borers, and long-horned beetles, all of which are destructive to 
forest and orchard trees, also were found in stomachs of this species 
Beetles, as a whole, are exceeded in the food of this bird by caterpillars, the 
latter constituting 10.32 per cent of the diet. One of the species identified — the cotton 
worm — has long been known as a great pest throughout the Southern States, and in 
certain years has caused a decrease in the crop of a quarter of a million bales, valued 
at $25,000,000. Fourteen of the 74 gray grosbeaks examined consumed cotton worms, 
which averaged 39.1 per cent of their food. As many as 18 caterpillars were found 
in a single stomach. Another caterpillar enemy of the same crop—the cotton cut¬ 
worm — also is freely devoured. 
As beetles are less esteemed than caterpillars by the gray grosbeak, so also are the 
latter less liked than orthopterous insects. This group contributes 11.52 per cent 
of the total food, and includes both long and short-horned locusts and their eggs, 
7 or 8 grasshoppers sometimes being secured by a single bird. True bugs, comprising 
stinkbugs and their eggs, cicadas, leafhoppers, and lantern flies come to about 1.5 
per cent. All these insects are injurious and the bird does a sendee by feeding upon 
them. 
One parrot-bill was bold enough to swallow a large hornet. A few ants also were 
eaten, and these, together with spiders and snails, complete the list of animal food 
taken. Although this grosbeak is not conspicuously insectivorous, almost all the 
insects it eats are injurious. 
The data at hand are insufficient to determine finally the exact economic status 
of the bird, but it may be stated with confidence that the gray grosbeak is almost 
entirely beneficial.—w. l. m. 
PAINTED BUNTING. 1 
The male painted bunting (fig. 7) is one of the most brilliantly colored birds of the 
United States. The upper part of the head and neck are shining purplish violet, the 
middle of the back yellowish green, wings and tail purplish blue, and underparts and 
rump vermilion. The female is dark green above and yellowish beneath. 
This little jewel has not failed to attract popular attention and in consequence 
has received a variety of common names. In Louisiana the French speaking people 
have called it nonpareil (unequaled), and le pape (the pope). The last name has been 
contracted to pop and varied as red pop. Spanish speaking citizens know the bird 
as mariposa (butterfly), and in English the bird has variously been named painted 
bunting or finch, paradise finch, Mexican canary, and Texas canary. 
The painted bunting is not only distinguished in appearance, but also is one of the 
most pleasing songsters among the finches. It is a persistent vocalist, and this char¬ 
acteristic, in addition to its beauty and activity, makes it a most desirable species 
for the vicinity of homes. Fortunately the bird is not averse to proximity to man, 
1 Passer in a ciris. 
