8 
FARMERS ; BULLETIN 755 . 
there were examined 291 stomachs, representing every month. Their contents were 
made up of 94.18 per cent animal matter, nearly all insects, and 5.82 per cent vegetable, 
chiefly seeds. A very marked uniformity in the diet is noticeable, the winter season 
showing almost as great a consumption of insects as the summer. 
Of the animal food, beetles amount to 13.64 per cent, all injurious except a lew 
useful predatory ground beetles (1.71 per cent); two-fifths of these were eaten m 
December, presumably on account of scarcity of other insects. Many species of snout 
beetles, or weevils, were identified (4.29 per cent), but the most interesting economi¬ 
cally is the cotton boll weevil, 31 individuals of which were found in 18 stomachs. 
Other beetles, like the 12-spotted cucumber beetle, the striped cucumber beetle, the 
bean leaf beetle, and numerous so-called flea beetles, all more or less harmful, occur 
in many stomachs and form 7.64 per cent of the total food. 
Ants (4.63 per cent) were found in the stomachs collected every month except 
September and in very uniform quantities. The greatest consumption was in July 
(8.81 per cent). For each of the 11 months bees and wasps amount to about the 
same as the ants. Bugs, with one exception, are the most important item in the 
diet of the Carolina wren (18.91 per cent), and were eaten every month, with a good 
percentage for each. The maximum (32.16 per cent) was taken in February. The 
majority of the insects eaten were of the larger species, as stinkbugs, or soldier bugs, 
leaf-legged bugs, and leal’hoppers. Four stomachs contained the chinch bug and in 
one there were 5 individuals. Scale insects destructive to oranges were found in one 
stomach. 
Caterpillars and a few moths, the largest item in the food (21.73 per cent), were 
eaten every month with a good percentage for each. The month of greatest consump¬ 
tion is September, when they constitute more than one-third of the whole food (39 per 
cent). No special pest was observed, but as the Carolina wren is a small bird the 
caterpillars are usually so torn to pieces that the species can not be determined; 
and the moths eaten were so fragile as to be unidentifiable after the process of digestion 
had begun. 
Grasshoppers and crickets, with a few other orthopterous insects, as cockroaches and 
their eggs, constitute 12.57 per cent of food of the Carolina wren and form a fairly large 
percentage of the food from July to the end of the year. The average consumption for 
these months is 19.65 per cent, while that for the first six months is only 5.49 per cent. 
As with many other birds the month of greatest consumption is August (26.9 per cent). 
Flies do not appear very acceptable as food to the wren. None were eaten in 
January, August, or September, and comparatively few in the other months. The 
average for the year is a trifle over 3 per cent. The sort mostly taken are the so-called 
“daddy longlegs,” or crane flies. 
Spiders are apparently very attractive to wrens in general, particularly to the 
Carolina wren, which probably finds them when investigating crannies of buildings, 
piles of lumber, or heaps of brush, as is its habit when looking for nesting sites, or when 
not pressed by other responsibilities. This wren eats spiders in every month, and in 
the five months from April to August to the extent of 16.67 per cent for each. In 
the remaining seven months spiders aggregate 6.16 per cent of the food, an unusual 
percentage; the average for the year is 10.54 per cent. Most wrens eat spiders more 
than do other birds, but the Carolina wren excels them all. Millepeds, or thousand® 
legs, are eaten sparingly throughout the year (2.06 per cent) and none were taken in 
January, June, or September. 
Animals other than insects, as sowbugs and snails, were found in a few stomachs, 
but constitute only 0.16 per cent. Vertebrate animals would hardly be expected 
to form part of the diet of so small a bird, but the Carolina wren eats them often. 
Remains of lizards were found in 14 stomachs, tree frogs in 8, and a snake in 1; totaling 
1.92 per cent. 
The great bulk of the vegetable food of the Carolina wren consists of various kinds 
of seeds, mostly of trees or shrubs. Of these, bayberry was found in 20 stomachs, 
