KINGLETS. 83 



100 individuals of this species. Otiier beetles were found belonging 

 to about a dozen families, all more or less injurious. 



Lepidoptera, both larvse (caterpillars) and adult forms (moths 

 and butterflies) constitute only a small portion of the kinglet's diet. 

 They were eaten sparing^ in every month but one, but in all aggre- 

 gate only 3 percent of the whole. While a few caterpillars were eaten, 

 inost of the lepidopterous food consisted of the minute cocoons of 

 tineid moths, a family of immense size, wide distribution, and destruc- 

 tive habits. They are largely leaf-miners, and do much damage to 

 the foliage of fruit and other trees. They are so small that even the 

 little kinglet can eat a great many of them at a meal. In only 2 

 stomachs was anything found that resembled a grasshopper, and in 

 both the quantity was small and the identification doubtful. Flies 

 (Diptera) constitute nearly 17 percent of the diet, but are very une- 

 venly distributed. The greatest amount in one month was in Janu- 

 ary, 35 percent, all of Avhich was in 7 stomachs collected in tlie same 

 place within three days. These 7 stomachs contained an average of 

 96 percent of dipterous remains. The birds evident!}^ found a 

 gathering of flies, probably dormant, and filled themselves almost 

 exclusively with them. Another series of 4, taken at the same place 

 in February, also had eaten flies to the extent of over 80 percent of 

 the food. Spiders and pseudoscorpions amount to nearly 2 percent 

 of the food, and are taken quite regularly through the season, though 

 the greater number were eaten in October. These last are curious 

 minute creatures, the various species of which live under stones, on 

 the bark of trees, and in old books. 



Vegetable food. — The vegetable food of the kinglets may be dis- 

 cussed under three heads — fruit, weed seeds, and miscellaneous vege- 

 table matter. Fruit amounts to less than 1 percent of the food, prin- 

 cipall}^ elderberries (Sambucus). Weed seeds are present to the 

 extent of a little more than one-tenth of 1 percent, and may therefore 

 be dismissed without further comment. In the miscellaneous veg-e- 

 table food two items include nearly the whole — seeds of poison oak 

 and leaf galls — which together amount to somewhat more than 4 

 percent. The eating of the seeds of poison oak is not a commendable 

 habit in any bird, for the seeds are not destroyed, but after the wax 

 on the outside is digested are either passed through the intestine or 

 disgorged, and so these harmful plants are disseminated. In many 

 of the stomachs certain small round bodies were found that were 

 diagnosed as ' leaf galls.' They appear to be galls in the earlj^ stage 

 and are eaten while small and tender. 



SUMMARY. 



The foregoing discussion of the food of the ruby-crowned kinglet 

 serves to confirm popular opinion with regard to this bird. As it« 



