Publisher's Synopsis
"The pine and evening grosbeaks receive only passing mention, but the cardinal, gray, rose-breasted, black-headed, and blue grosbeaks are discussed in detail. The account of each species includes a description of the appearance of the bird, its distribution and habits, the details of its vegetable and animal food, mineral matter found in the stomachs, and the food of the nestlings and other young birds. Lists of the seeds, fruits, and invertebrates eaten by each species are given. One chapter discusses the relations of grosbeaks and other birds to parasitic insects. Some mention is made of the food of about 30 species of birds besides grosbeaks, these references occurring mainly in lists of bird enemies of rose chafers and potato beetles and in an account of birds that feed on mulberries."-Biological Survey - Bulletin, Issue 41 "The first on our list is by Mr. W. L. McAtee, an Assistant of the Biological Survey, and it is a model of what such work should be. The Author surveys the food eaten by five species of grosbeaks, representing the genera 'Cardinalis, ' 'Pyrrhuloxia, ' 'Zamelodia, ' and 'Guiraca, ' and giving for each species a most exhaustive account of the animal and vegetable constituents of the food, supplemented by illustrations of all the more important plants and insects and excellent figures of the birds themselves. "It would be impossible in the space of a short review to give an adequate account of the Author's conclusions, but suffice it to say that he has shown beyond cavil that these birds, which have been condemned now by the farmer and now by the fruit-grower-some species showing at certain times of the year a fondness for fruit and some for grain, -are, on the whole, unquestionably extremely valuable birds, devouring immense quantities of the seeds of certain noxious weeds. The five species studied consume nine times more weed-seed than grain and fruit, and nineteen times more injurious than useful insects."-'The Annals and Magazine of Natural History'
