. The Canadian field-naturalist. April-June, 1955] The Canadian Field-Naturalist 63. S 6 AGE IN WEEKS 10-12 Fig. 1. Amounts of animal and plant matter in the diet of 251 juvenile pheasants. aquatic habitat. Under normal circumstances the larvae would not be exposed to the young birds, so those taken were probably found at the edges of shallow meadow pools which had begun to dry up. Lepidoptera and Diptera formed the bulk of the insect diet of the first week. The former consisted mainly of larvae while the latter included adult Chironomidae and larval Syrphidae. Representatives of Hymenoptera o
. The Canadian field-naturalist. April-June, 1955] The Canadian Field-Naturalist 63. S 6 AGE IN WEEKS 10-12 Fig. 1. Amounts of animal and plant matter in the diet of 251 juvenile pheasants. aquatic habitat. Under normal circumstances the larvae would not be exposed to the young birds, so those taken were probably found at the edges of shallow meadow pools which had begun to dry up. Lepidoptera and Diptera formed the bulk of the insect diet of the first week. The former consisted mainly of larvae while the latter included adult Chironomidae and larval Syrphidae. Representatives of Hymenoptera occurred chiefly in the older birds, the com- mon forms being pupae and adults of For- micidae; the crop of one seven-week old bird contained 380 ants. PLANT FOOD After six weeks of age cultivated grains make up the largest portion of the diet. Of these, wheat formed 86 per cent, soya beans seven per cent and oats and barley seven per cent. The wheat became available to the birds as waste wheat after it was com- bined. Often up to 500 young pheasants could be seen feeding in a 30-acre stubble field in an evening. Although most of the cultivated area was in soya beans, these beans were not found in any quantity in the crops because the pods were not ripe by the time sampling was terminated on Sept. 4. Like the grains, wild fruits, grass, leaves and seeds became increasingly important in the diet after the third week. The fruits found to occur most frequently were those of fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica Ait.), snow- berry (Symphoricarpos albus L.), grapes (Vi- tis spp.), panicled dogwood (Cornus racemosa Lam.), hackberry (Celtis occidentalis L.), stag- horn sumac (Rhus typhina L.) and bittersweet (Solanum Dulcamara L.). A single fruit of serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.) was found in the crop of a four-week old bird. This is of interest since Core (1948) does not record the serviceberry for Pelee Island. Among the leaves commonly found were those of sweet clover (Melilotus sp.), blac
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