ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS


few berries which it occasionally eats are valueless compared with the service
which it is capable of rendering.
Food: Of twenty-nine specimens examined, one had eaten ants; three, three
ichneumon-flies, two of them Thalesea lunator?, the other a small species
having
an extent of wing of one-tenth of an inch; eight, twenty-six caterpillars;
three, six diptera, three of them tipulids; seventeen, forty-seven beetles;
three,
six hemipterous insects; four, seven grasshoppers; one, a small dragon-fly;
one,
a very large spider; and two, ten harvestmen. Curculios, elaters and leaf-chaf-
ers, some of them three-fourths of an inch long, were represented among the
beetles. From the stomachs of three young birds less than a week old were
taken four caterpillars, one fly, one small grasshopper, one hemipterous
insect,
together with undetermined fragments.
Wasps, hornets, humble bees and other large winged insects; also, cherries,
huckleberries and other fruits (Wils.). Insects found among tall cottonwood
trees, and frequently a kind of bee found on laurea bushes (Cooper). Insects
and their larvae, preferring beetles, wasps, etc.; also, berries and grapes
(De Kay).
Insects (Samuels). Cherries, dogwood berries and cedar berries. Spends much
of its time in pursuit of insects (Audubon).
60. PYRANGA LUDOVICIANA (WILS.), BP. LOUISIANA TANAGER. GROUP
II. CLASS a.
Mr. Thure Kumlien informs me that he obtained a pair of these birds breed-
ing near Busseyville, in May, 1877. The bird appears, however, to be out
of
place.
Food: Insects and berries (Cooper). The stomach of a specimen examined by
Dr. Suckley contained insects, principally coleoptera, among them many frag-
ments of a large Bttpresti8, found generally on the Douglas fir-trees (Coues).
FA=Y HIRLTNDINIDE: SWALLOWS.
FIG. 119.


WHITE-BELLIED SWALLOW (Iridoproone bicolor). After Baird, Brewer and Ridgway,


52