. Food habits of the grosbeaks . etle in lawns and strawberry plots are well known. The birdfeeds also upon another good-sized scarabaeid {Anomala binotata).which injures grapes and other plants. Among the smaller members of this family the dung beetles,which occur in large numbers, flying near the ground along countryroads, are frequently captured by this grosbeak. Most of them areof neutral economic position, but one species {Aphodius granarius,fig. 23), burrows into sprouting corn. Having this bad habit, thefarmer is indebted to the grosbeak for preying upon it. Passing to a group of beetle
. Food habits of the grosbeaks . etle in lawns and strawberry plots are well known. The birdfeeds also upon another good-sized scarabaeid {Anomala binotata).which injures grapes and other plants. Among the smaller members of this family the dung beetles,which occur in large numbers, flying near the ground along countryroads, are frequently captured by this grosbeak. Most of them areof neutral economic position, but one species {Aphodius granarius,fig. 23), burrows into sprouting corn. Having this bad habit, thefarmer is indebted to the grosbeak for preying upon it. Passing to a group of beetles, the weevils, which are an importantelemrait of the food of most birds, and which are so uniformly in-jurious that almost any one of them may be deemed a pest, it is grati-fying to note that the rosebreast does its share toward checkingthem. Moreover, among the kinds it eats is one of the very worstenemies of cultivated fruit in the United States, namely, the plumcurcolio {Conotrachelm nenuphar, fig. 2A). One grosbeak devoured. 46 FOOD HABITS OF THE GEOSBEAKS. three of these destructive weevils, which may be taken as indicatingthat an opportunity to feed on them is not overlooked. In this con-nection it is of interest to recall the other birds that are known toprey upon this pest. They are 8 in number: Great-crested flycatcher,Baltimore and orchard orioles, yellow-throated vireo, bank swallow,veery, hermit thrush, and bluebii-d. The grosbeak does not confineitself to the plum curculio, but evinces a taste for related species,two of which were identified. These infest the hackberry and hick-ory, respectively. A fourth kind was present in the stomachs, butcould not be ^assigned a specific name. The curculios destroy a largeproportion of the fruit of the trees they attack, and are capable ofdoing vast damage; hence the services of the birds that devour themare of great value. Eelated to the curculios are the nut weevils (Balaninus), whichattack their favorite plants in much the
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