14 
FARMERS , BULLETIN 755. 
Grasshoppers, together with true bugs, form more than one-tenth of the total food. 
These groups of insects comprise many injurious forms of which the cardinal takes due 
toll. Especially commendable is the destruction of scale insects, of which several 
different species were identified from the stomachs of 21 redbirds. 
Beetles comprise more than a tenth of the whole diet. Among them, weevils are 
predominant. The acorn weevils, clover weevils, and billbugs, all injurious forms, 
are freely eaten, and the cotton boll weevil occasionally. Vine chafers of various spe¬ 
cies, the southern fig eater, and rose chafers are among other injurious beetles destroyed. 
Click beetles, cucumber beetles, strawberry root borers, plum and locust leaf beetles 
also are devoured by the cardinal. The bird has a record for feeding on many of the 
worst agricultural pests. 
The vegetable food consists chiefly of weed seeds, but wild fruit and grain also are 
eaten to some extent. The grain, however, is largely waste, as it is taken only in win¬ 
ter. Wild fruit, or rather the seeds of wild fruit which usually are extracted and the 
pulp rejected by the redbird, composes about one-fourth of the total subsistence. 
Wild grape seeds are favorites, but those of dogwoods, blackberries, hackberries, 
smilax, cherries, blueberries, elderberries, pokeberries, and juneberries, and the fruit 
of prickly pear, sumac, holly, redhaw, passion flower, Mexican mulberry, and palmettos 
also are eaten. Little, if any, attention is paid to cultivated fruits. 
Most important among the items of vegetable food is weed seed. This forms more 
than a third of the total food. Seeds of smartweeds and bindweeds rank first in prefer¬ 
ence, and the seeds of the following troublesome weeds are freely eaten: Foxtail, bur, 
cockspur, crab and yard grasses, dodder, dock, sow thistle, plantain, tumbleweed, 
nail grass, lamb’s-quarters, chickweed, sticktiglit, partridge pea, and buttonweed. 
The redbird occupies an important place among birds devouring weed seeds.—w. l. m. 
GRAY GROSBEAK. 1 
The gray grosbeak, or parrot-bill, is about the same size as the cardinal, closely 
resembles that bird in song and general demeanor, and has similar nesting habits. 
Moreover, it frequents the same kind of country and is resident wherever found. In 
appearance, however, it is quite dissimilar. 
In strong contrast to the glowing hue of the cardinal the general color of both sexes 
of the parrot-bill is light gray. The wings, tail, and long crest are suffused with dark 
red and the wings are lined with rose. This color also surrounds the beak of the male 
and extends over throat and breast in an irregular patch. The beak is yellowish and 
is very curiously modified, being short, thick, strongly curved, and apparently of 
great power. 
The gray grosbeak comes into the lower half of Texas, not reaching, however, the 
extreme eastern part of the State. 
Seventy-four stomachs of gray grosbeaks from Texas have been examined, 59 col¬ 
lected in August and 15 in September. Vegetable matter averages 71.19 per cent of 
the contents and animal matter 28.81 per cent. 
Grass seeds constitute an average of 53.09 per cent of the total food of the birds exam¬ 
ined, or more than five-sevenths of the vegetable food alone. Most important among 
them are foxtail and bur grass, which together amount to 43.59 per cent of the food 
Since these grasses are among the most pernicious of weeds, the parrot-bill is more than 
welcome to all their seeds it desires. 
The seeds of other grasses eaten are important, furnishing 9.51 per cent of the bird’s 
subsistence. Among these are witch and crab grasses, most species of which are weeds, 
and yard or wire grass. Seeds of a spurge contribute 9.81 per cent of this grosbeak’s 
fare, and other weeds, including bindweed, lamb’s-quarters, tumbleweed, sunflower, 
carpetweed, nightshade, vervain, and mallow compose 6.13 per cent. 
i Pyrrhuloxia sinuata tcxana. 
