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Show BUTCHER BIRD'S DIET Eastern Variety Consumes Nothing Noth-ing But Animal Matter. Consumption of Grasshoppers Far Outweighs Out-weighs Harm Done to Other Birds and Beetles Capable of Doing Much Good. (By F. K. L. BEAU The southern butcher bird in some of its numerous forms, is found over much of the United States, and is especially common on the Pacific coast. All the forms retire southward - at the approach of winter and In many localities are replaced during the cold season by the northern butcher bird, which comes down from the north and winters in the United States. The butcher bird resembles a bird of prey m form of beak and to a certain cer-tain extent in food habits, but It has no talons such at. enable the true birds of prey to seize their victim and hold it while tearing it to pieces. For the investigation of the food of the soi'?hern butcher bird 124 stomachs stom-achs ot the western sub-species were examined and 8S of the eastern. The western bird showed 2.5 per cent, of vegetable substances in their stomachs but the eastern ones contained noth- - V i A : -.' y " - v. X - s ) - N : -. 1 4 n " i ' . . -..'".-- '::-. , .T.". -it" -;...' ' V , ; i . - -.iw.r- :-. ... --i ...... v ; ' ', ' - " - V , Southern Butcher Bird." ing but animal matter. The animal portion of the food of western butcher O.rds consists of S3 per cent, spiders and a few .snails, 2 per cent, and vertebrates ver-tebrates 12 per cent. The stomachs of the eastern forms show 68 per cent., spiders 4 per cent., and vertebrates verte-brates 28 per cent. The difference is undoubtedly due to climate, the western bird being able to find insects all the year round, while the eastern one gets very few during the winter. While the southern butcher bird eats a few birds and some useful insects, its diet is on the whole very much in its favor, as the consumption of grasshoppers far outweighs the tiarm to birds and beetles. As, a feature of the landscape, and as lending lend-ing animation to rural scenes, the ;3hrike, or butcher bird, in California is a pronounced success, and, while ;not so numerous in the east, It is just ;as attractive and is doing the same good by its food habits. |