NORTHERN CRESTED FLYCATCHER 1 l.j 



Food. — Prof. Belli (1912) examined the contents of 265 stomachs 

 of the crested flycatcher, and found it divided into 93.70 percent 

 animal and 6.30 percent vegetable matter. "Beetles constitute 16.78 

 percent of the food, and of these 0.24 percent are useful species." 

 He identified 52 species of beetles in the food, representing 12 dif- 

 ferent families, among which such harmful species as the cotton-boll 

 weevil, the strawberry weevil, and the plum curculio were noted. 

 Hymenoptera (bees and wasps) amount to 13.69 percent; the destruc- 

 tive sawflies were found, but only one worker honeybee; a few par- 

 asitic species were noted, but the proportion was not large. Diptera 

 (flies) amount to only 3.06 percent. Hemiptera (bugs) constitute 

 14.26 percent of the diet. Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and 

 katydids) seem to be favorite food; the average for all the months 

 is 15.62 percent, but it ran as high as 23.18 percent in September. 

 Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are the largest item in the food, 

 21.38 percent ; caterpillars were found in 73 stomachs and adult moths 

 and butterflies in 48, an unusually large percentage of adults. The 

 remainder of the animal food was found to consist of dragonflies, 

 lace-winged flies, and a few other insects, 4.14 percent; spiders, 4.03 

 percent; and a few eggshells; and "three stomachs contained the 

 bones of a lizard {^Anolis carolinensis) P 



The vegetable food, 6.30 percent, consists of small wild fruits, 

 such as mulberry, pokeberry, sassafras, spicebush, blackberry, rasp- 

 berry, chokecherry, wild bird cherry, Virginia creeper, wild grape, 

 cornel, huckleberry, blueberry, and elderberry. 



Since the above bulletin was published, A. L. Nelson has sent 

 us the results of the analysis of six more stomachs and a compilation 

 of all the material in the economic food notes files of the Biological 

 Survey. Among these I find mentioned a number of butterflies and 

 moths, both adults and larvae, including the destructive leopard 

 moth ; also June bugs and cicadas. 



He quotes from a letter from Fred E. Brooks as follows: "While 

 making some observations recently upon the grapevine rootborer 

 {Memythrus polistoformis) in a vineyard in Upshur County, W. Va., 

 I noticed that the insects were being preyed upon by crested fly- 

 catchers {Myiarchus crinitus). The adult of this insect is a day- 

 flying moth and the birds would catch them as they flew about the 

 vines." He also quotes the following from W. D. Doan (1888) : "In 

 eastern Pennsylvania its food consists largely of the following insects : 

 Anhopterix pometaria and A. vemata^ Piei'^U oleracea (Oleracea But- 

 terfly), P. rapae (the imported cabbage butterfly), Collas phUodice 

 (sulphur butterfly), corn worm {Gortyna zeae)^ house fly {Mnsca 

 do?nesti^a), white-lined house fly {Tdbamis Un-eoTa)^ stable fly {Sto- 

 moxys ccdcitrans) , red ant {Formica sanguinea) , field cricket {GryJlus 



