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FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
trunks. Was there ever another such 
omelet ? 
The Biological Survey examined the 
stomachs of 420 kingbirds and reported 
insects, mostly noxious, as constituting 
90 per cent of their contents. In the case 
of the phoebe, the percentage was even 
larger, and included klick beetles, May 
beetles and weevils, wasps, flies, bugs and 
spiders. The stomach of a cuckoo was 
found to contain 250 tent caterpillars and 
another 217 heads of the fall web worm; 
the stomachs of 155 cuckoos contained 
2,771 caterpillars, largely of the hairy va¬ 
rieties, which most birds refuse. The 
blue jay, that burly, self assertive, squal¬ 
ling, pugnacious and rapacious, though 
handsome rascal, who sometimes no doubt 
destroys the eggs of other birds, has been 
shown to be the devourer of large quan¬ 
tities of harmful insects; even the thieving 
and omnivorous crow, whom nobody 
seems to love, eats beetles, grasshoppers, 
cutworms, and other caterpillars, chiefly 
noxious, in great numbers. More than 
one-half the food of the meadow lark is 
composed of beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, 
caterpillars and a considerable portion of 
the remaining part of noxious weed seeds. 
All the several species of swallows, the 
scurrying cavalry of this beneficial army, 
live chiefly on winged insects, of which 
they devour immeasurable quantities. 
More than 60 per cent, of the stomach 
contents in the case of the brown thrasher, 
more than 70 per cent in the case of the 
blue bird and more than 90 per cent in 
the case of the house wren have been 
found to consist of insects. More than 
fifty species of birds are known to prey 
on the boll weevil, that implacable 
scourge of our Southland. 
And so the merry and tuneful warriors 
wage battle against the invading army of 
bugs all day and every day, especially 
during the breeding season, in the upper 
air, among the branches of the trees and 
up and down their trunks, in the field, in 
the swamp, and by the roadside. Nor 
does this battle cease as most battles do, 
with the coming on of darkness, for then 
the night hawk, or bullbat, takes up the 
assault—Tie most voracious perhaps of 
all the insect eating birds. Its stomach is 
enormous, aldermanic, and it is seldom 
empty. Mr. Beal, of the Biological Sur¬ 
vey reports the results of an examination 
of the stomachs of 100 bullbats; in one 
of these some 1,800 ants were found, in 
another the remains of thirty-four May 
beetles, and in another Colorado potato 
bugs, squash bugs and leaf hoppers. One 
stomach contained portions of seventeen 
different species of insects. Myriads of 
mosquitoes, among them the fever-carry¬ 
ing kind, are destroyed nightly by this 
winged and grunting board of health. Yet 
there are farmers who look on smiling 
while uninstructed boys amuse themselves 
by shooting bullbats in the twilight. 
To be sure, certain species of birds, 
like the cherry bird, the blue jay, the 
crow, the rice bird, the red winged black 
bird, the crow black bird, the linnet, the 
sap sucker, the robin and the cat bird are 
accused of eating and perforating fruit 
and stealing grain, and no doubt justly so; 
probably some birds help to spread scale 
insects from tree to tree, but I am con¬ 
vinced that all of these, taking the matter 
“by and large,” are far more beneficial 
than harmful and deserve our thanks and 
protection. Is not the laborer “worthy 
of his hire?’ 
3. A third service to the farmer is ren- 
