46 RECORDS VOLUME XII, FEB. 1920. 
with some fal about the intestines. Crop well distended 
with what proved upon microscopic examination to be 
corn meal, which magnified x 1500 showed that most of 
the starch granules had been broken up probably by hav- 
‘ing been cooked. Proventriculus and gizzard full of the 
same food, fragments of chitinous outer parts of beetles. 
and a fairproportion of ‘‘grit’’ in the form of bits of quartz. 
This latter named in about the same proportion as I find 
in the gizzard of a Fox Sparrow (preserved in formalin). 
taken on Pium Island, Ipswich, Nov. 12, 1908. when there 
was no snow on the ground. 
The food in the gizzard of this Tree Sparrow had been 
well disintegrated by digestion, and there were only a ve- 
ry few starch granules entire. Asthe intestines were in 
poor condition I could not give them a satisfactory exam- 
ation, but as the other organs were apparently in norma! 
condition, I did not find any cause of the death of this 
bird, but it certainly did not die of starvation. 
2.[This and the 7 following birds are from Miss Critten- 
den.| In fair condition and not emaciated, but with little 
fat. Crop and proventriculus empty. Gizzard with the re- 
mains of insects, three or four insects eggs, and afew bits 
of quartz. Other organs too soft for examination, but no 
sions of death by actual starvation. 
3. In about the same physical condition as No.2. Giz- 
zard with a quantity of pieces of grass, remains of insects, 
and afew bits of quartz. This bird had evidently been 
killed by a blow on the head, for blood had settied on top 
of the skull and had been oozing out of the nostrils. The 
brain was too soft to examine for injury. 
Downy Woodpecker. 
1. A @ in good physical condition with fat about intes- 
