NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE. 71 



knowledge of its food. Fifty-seven stomachs were available for 

 examination, and these were taken in every month of the year, 

 except March, April, and May. The food consisted of nearly 65 

 percent of animal matter and 35 of vegetable. 



Animal /oof/.— Caterpillars constitute 18 percent of the animal 

 portion. They were found in nearly every month in which stomachs 

 Avere taken, there being a fairly good percentage even in January and 

 December. The greatest amount, 53 percent, was eaten in August. 

 Hemiptera, consisting of leaf-hoppers, tree-hoppers, and olive and 

 other scales, constitute the most important item of food, and amount 

 to about 25 percent. These were found in all except two winter 

 months. Wasps were eaten to the extent of 13 percent of the food, 

 but no ants were found. Beetles amount to less than 2 percent of 

 the food, but nearly all are noxious; weevils appeared in one stomach. 

 Flies and grasshoppers are conspicuous by their absence, and not 

 even a trace of one was discovered. Spiders are a very constant ele- 

 ment of the food of nearly all the titmice. In that of the chestnut- 

 side they amount to nearly 7 percent for the year, though in August 

 they constitute nearly K) percent. 



Vegetable food. — The vegetable portion of the food consists of 

 fruit pulp 8 percent, seeds nearly 20 percent, and miscellaneous mat- 

 ter 7 percent. Fruit pulp was found only in a few stomachs taken in 

 the fall and winter and was probably waste fruit. The seeds eaten 

 were mostl^^ those of coniferous trees, as was to be expected of a bird 

 which spends so much of its life in evergreen forests. The miscel- 

 laneous items of the vegetable food are leaf galls, bits of moss, and 

 rubbish. 



SUMMARY. 



The above sketch of the chestnut-sided chickadee, while very 

 imperfect, suffices to show the general character of its food. A few 

 stomachs also of the mountain chickadee (Parus gamheli) have been 

 examined and the contents foi^nd to agree in a general way with the 

 food of others of the group. 



WREN TIT. 



{ChdiiKicd fdsciiitd subspp. ) 



This modest, secretive bird, like the eastern chat, is more often 

 heard than seen. At present it does not often live in orchards and gar- 

 dens, and when it visits these it sticks closely to hedges and the denser 

 parts of the shrubbery. In general it keeps to its original abiding 

 places in the dense chaparral of canyons and hillsides. So long as it 

 is confined chiefly to these situations its food habits will never be of 



