GNATCATCHERS. 



89 



FOOD OF YOUNG. 



Amoiio- the stomachs examined were those of 25 nestlings taken in 

 June and July. Their approximate ages and dates of capture are 

 given in the following table : 



Taking the collection as a whole their stomachs contained 92.6 per- 

 cent animal matter to 7.4 percent of vegetable. Caterpillars aggre- 

 gate nearly 27 percent and were found in every stomach but 7. No 

 other element w^as so abundant. Beetles collectively are next in 

 importance, with 22 percent. Of these the useful Carabidse amount to 

 7.7 percent and are very irregularly distributed. All the remain- 

 der are more or less harmful species. Bugs (Hemiptera) aggregate 

 13.8 percent. Five families of these were identified, viz., stink-bugs, 

 leaf-hoppers, tree-hoppers, shield-bugs, and cicadas. Ants and a few 

 other Hymenoptera amount to 12 percent, and spiders to exactly the 

 same. These last were mostly harvest-men or daddy-long-legs (Pha- 

 langidge). A few miscellaneous insects amount to 6 percent, which 

 maJces up the whole of the animal food. Four stomachs of the russet- 

 back contained remains of grasshoppers and three of these were nest- 

 lings. Cai-abid beetles were eaten by the young birds to the extent of 

 7.7 percent, which is more than three times the amount eaten by the 

 adults. This is rather singular, for most of these insects are very 

 liard-shelled and not at all the kind of food usually selected for young 

 birds. Another interesting point is that all were contained in the 

 stomachs of broods Nos. 2, 4, and 5. None of the other nestlings' 

 stomachs held a trace of them. 



The vegetable food amounts to 6.8 percent of fruit, with less than 

 1 percent of two or three other things. The fruit was nearly all 

 either blackberries or raspberries, Avhich were found in 11 stomachs, 

 with tAvin berries in 1. One seed of filaree and some rubbish made up 

 the rest of the vegetable food. 



While the above affords a general idea of the food of these nest- 

 lings as a whole, there are some differences in the food of the different 

 broods, which may be worthy of notice. The stomachs of broods Nos. 

 1, 2, and 6 contained no vegetable matter, as was the case with one each 

 of broods 3 and 5. Broods 4, 7, and 8 had all eaten vegetable food, 



