United States Department of Agriculture
Bulletin No. 619
March 8, 1918

Source
http://books.google.com/books?id=bB4lAQAAMAAJ&dq=0CD8Q6AEwAQ&pg=RA1-PA47#v=onepage&q&f=false

Food Habits of the Swallows, a family
of Valuable Native Birds.

By F. E. L. Beal, Assistant Biologist

(Prof. Beal, the most experienced economic 
Ornithologist in the country, died on October 1, 1916, 
shortly after the preparation of this paper.)

Page 3

Purple Martin

Progm 8ubie

The purple martin occurs in nearly all parts of the 
United States where suitable nesting sites are found. 
As its nest is usually in a cranny of a building or in 
a house put up for its express use, it follows that the 
bird breeds chiefly in settled portions of the country. 
Probably at one time it nested in holes in cliffs, but 
that time is long past, and now, showing the greatest 
confidence in its human neighbors, the bird builds 
its nest as readily in the midst of a noisy city as about 
a country cottage or on a quiet farm.

For the determination of the food of the martin 205 
stomachs were available, collected throughout the 
United States with a few from Canada. They represent 
the months from February to September, inclusive, and 
are fairly well distributed through that period. Examination 
shows that the food consists entirely of animal matter, 
insects with a few spiders and other allied creatures, 
with no trace of vegetable food. The largest item consists 
of Hymenoptera (23 per cent). These were found in 129 
stomachs, of which 7 contained no other food. Ants 
(3.52 per cent) were found in 30 of these and formed the 
sole contents of 2. As many ants have no wings, they are 
probably snapped from the tops of weeds as the martin 
darts past. Occasionally, however, the bird had evidently 
met a swarm of winged ants and made nearly a full meal 
of them. Among the Hymenoptera were some useful 
parasitic species. Ants, on the contrary, are annoying if 
not harmful, so that while the bird's consumption of 
Hymenoptera is on the whole not a decidedly good 
function, it certainly results in little or no harm. Five 
stomachs contained remains of honey bees (Apis 
mellifera) with an aggregate of 11 individuals, all of 
them males, or drones.

Diptera, found in 50 stomachs and forming the sole 
contents of 7, stand next in the food of the martin. 
Eaten in every month in which stomachs were taken, 
they amount to 16.09 per cent of the food. They 
consisted largely of the long-legged tipulids, better 
known as daddy longlegs, whose larvae are destructive 
to the roots of grass. Besides these, many of the 
Muscidae, the family of the common house fly, were 
eaten, and a few specimens of robberflies (Asilidae) 
were found.' The latter are predacious insects and 
are said to be very destructive to bees.

From the files of:
Historical Honeybee Articles
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/

Best Wishes
Joe Waggle

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