BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



181 



catchers usually choose exposed perches from which to watch for passing 

 insects, which they pursue and capture on the wing, usually returning 

 to the same station from which they started. In disposition they are 

 rather quarrelsome birds, the family character reaching its climax in the 

 Kingbird which will not tolerate rivals within his sphere of influence, and 

 will even drive eagles, hawks and crows far away from the vicinity of 

 its nest. 



The food of our flycatchers is almost entirely composed of insects 

 and all the species are probably beneficial. It is unfortunate that so many 

 of the parasitic Hymenoptera are included in the food of some of the smaller 

 species like the Wood pewee, and that bees are frequently destroyed by 

 the Kingbird, as well as others of the larger flycatchers; but the work of 

 the Biological Survey in investigating this subject has shown that the 

 percentage of bees and beneficial Hymenoptera is so low that it is practi- 

 cally a negligible quantity, and that all the flycatchers, even the Kingbird, 

 should be regarded as beneficial. In the fall, flycatchers, especially the 

 Kingbird, frequently resort to a diet of fruit, but this, even in the fall 

 and winter, amounts to only a small percentage of the entire food and 

 none of the flycatchers has been reported as destructive to the small cul- 

 tivated fruits grown in this section. 



The following table will serve to show in detail, from an examination 

 of stomach contents, exactly of what the food of these birds consists. 



Food of New York flycatchers' 



'From Bulletin 44, Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



