. Food habits of the grosbeaks . destruction of cotton insects bythe redbird is important, since the bird-is numerous in the cotton re-gion and feeds upon the worst enemies of the plant. The sphinx caterpillars, so many of which are injurious to culti-vated plants, were eaten by 20 redbirds. The species identified arethe laurel sphinx (Sphinx kahnice) and the purslane sphinx {Deile-phila liTieata, fig. 38), the latter being a general feeder and attackingFourth Ann. Rep. U. S. Ent. Comm. 1885, p. 88. 18848—Bull. 32—08—-2 ^ 16 FOOD HABITS OF THE-GROSBEAKS. several garden and field crops. Measuri
. Food habits of the grosbeaks . destruction of cotton insects bythe redbird is important, since the bird-is numerous in the cotton re-gion and feeds upon the worst enemies of the plant. The sphinx caterpillars, so many of which are injurious to culti-vated plants, were eaten by 20 redbirds. The species identified arethe laurel sphinx (Sphinx kahnice) and the purslane sphinx {Deile-phila liTieata, fig. 38), the latter being a general feeder and attackingFourth Ann. Rep. U. S. Ent. Comm. 1885, p. 88. 18848—Bull. 32—08—-2 ^ 16 FOOD HABITS OF THE-GROSBEAKS. several garden and field crops. Measuring worms were eaten by 2 cardinals,. the ze-bra caterpillar(fig. 10) of thecabbage by 1,while 2 securedchrysalides of thenotorious codlingmoth. It thus ap-pears that thelepidopterous foodof this grosbeakcontains a numberof serious pests,and the bird ac-complishes muchgood by destroy-ing them. A somewhatlarger number ofcardinals than atecaterpillars preyedupon grasshop-pers, and these in-sects form a corre-spondingly larger. Fig. -Bollworm or corn-ear worm (Hellothis obsoleta).(Prom Quaintance, Bureau of Entomology.)
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