218 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



lemon-yellow areas. The wings and tail are blacker than in first 

 winter, the back is black, either streaked or spotted, and the yellow 

 below is deeper." Of the female, he says: "The adult winter plum- 

 age is similar to the male in first winter dress, the yellow below rather 

 paler and wdth less heavy streakings." 



Food. — Throughout most of the year the Cape May warbler is in- 

 sectivorous, and mainly beneficial, but for a short time on its fall 

 migration it undoubtedly causes damage to ripe grapes by puncturing 

 them to obtain the juice, often ruining a large percentage of the crop. 

 Many complaints have been made and several have been published. 

 Frank L. Burns (1915a) claimed that about 50 percent of his crop 

 was destroyed at Berwyn, Pa., and says: "I believe that grape juice 

 was the principal food of the Cape May Warbler during its lengthy 

 visit in this neighborhood. It was present in countless numbers at 

 Berwyn and vicinity as far as a mile south of the village, apparently 

 by far the most abundant species for a period ; the complaints of the 

 the 'little striped yellow bird' were many, and so far as I am able 

 to learn, all unbagged grapes were ruined; the loss must have been 

 many tons worth several hundred dollars." He sent ten stomachs to 

 the Biological Survey for analysis and received the following reply : 



Hymenoptera constituted on an average 57.5 percent of the contents of the 

 stomachs. A third perhaps of this material was parasitic Hymenoptera and 

 their destruction counts against the bird. The others were ants and small bees 

 and are of neutral importance except perhaps the ants which may be Injurious. 

 Diptera made up 1G.7 percent of the stomach contents and again a large pro- 

 portion of them were parasitic species. Lepidoptera (small moths) constitute 

 16.7 per cent, beetles 7.8 percent and the remainder was made up of Hemiptera, 

 spiders and miscellaneous insects. Except for the spiders the food was entirely 

 composed of insects, and a large proportion of useful species were taken and 

 no decidedly injurious ones. I should say that these Cape May Warblers did 

 very little to pay for the destruction of grapes. 



McAtee (1904), after investigating the damage done on grapes by 

 this and the Temiessee warbler in Indiana, published the following 

 report on the contents of a single stomach of a Cape May warbler: 



8 Typlocyba comes, an especial pest of the grape, "an exceedingly abundant 

 and destructive" jassid; 3 Aphodius inquinatus and one Carabid, kinds which 

 may be considered neutral economically, but, in case of a departure from their 

 ordinary diet, would on account of vegetarian tendencies become injurious ; 

 1 Drasterias sp. (click-beetle), 1 tortoise-beetle, 1 flea-beetle (Haltica chalyhea), 

 all injurious beetles, the last of which is a particular enemy of the grape, which 

 "appears on the vine in early spring and bores into and scoops out the unopened 

 buds, sometimes so completely as to kill the vine to the roots," and later in 

 the season in both larval and adult stages feeds upon the foliage, and if 

 abundant "leaves little but the larger veins" ; 1 Notoxus sp., a weevil, with all 

 the undesirability characteristic of the creatures bearing that name ; 2 ants, 

 harmful, if for no other reason than harboring plant lice ; and a vespoidean 

 hymenopteron (wasp) of neutral significance. * ♦ * 



