. Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada . , and thehind pair thin and membranous. There are few groups of injurious insects that enter solargely into the composition of the food of birds as do thelocusts, or sliort-horned grasshoppers, of the family enormous destructive i)ower of these insects is wellknown, but our indebtedness to birds in checking their oscil-lations is less generally recognized. No more convincingproof of the latter, however, could be required than ProfessorSamuel Augh(\vs records of the food of bird
. Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada . , and thehind pair thin and membranous. There are few groups of injurious insects that enter solargely into the composition of the food of birds as do thelocusts, or sliort-horned grasshoppers, of the family enormous destructive i)ower of these insects is wellknown, but our indebtedness to birds in checking their oscil-lations is less generally recognized. No more convincingproof of the latter, however, could be required than ProfessorSamuel Augh(\vs records of the food of birds in Nebraskaduring outbreaks of the Rocky Mountain locust,—recordswhich show llial birds of all sizes and kinds turned their-at-teidion to reducing the ranks of the invaders. Similar resultsmay l)e seen in many i)ortions of the United States wheneverthe local non-migratory species of locusts become muisuallyabundant. The life-history of these insects is shnple: theeggs are dei)osited late in sunnner or early in autunm a littlebelow llie surface of llie soil ; the following spring they liatcli42. Till: AXIMAL FOOD nV ^ns. 48 into yoLiii^-, wliidi ivseiii])l( in ;i ^ieiicrul way the young- hoppers feed upon grass, clover, and shnilarl)lants. increasing grathially in size and occasionally sheddingtheir skins. In the course of about two months they acquirewings and become full grown. The Rocky Mountain locustsdevelop normally on the liigli, dry table-lands of the Rockiesand occasionally migrate in vast numbers to the fertile fieldsof the Mississipi)i Valley. The red-legged locust is the mostabundant of the widely dis-tributed species of this insects form a largel)art of the food of nestlingbirds as well as of the adults. The family Locustidce, whichincludes the long-hornedgrass-lioppers and katydids, is atonce distinguished from theAcridiidce by the very long an-tennae. These insects are alsoof much less economic impor-tance, but some species occa-s
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1916
