GRAY KINGBIRD 39 



Wilson (1923) states that these birds "eat large numbers of the larvae 

 and adults and are of great value in controlling the cotton-worm" 

 {Alabama argillacea)^ which is the second most important pest of 

 cotton in the Islands. In that locality it also feeds on the fall army- 

 worm {Laphygvm fragiperda)^ southern green stink bug {Nezara 

 viridula) , and bollworm {Heliothis ohsoleta) . All these are injurious 

 to cotton. 



Junius Henderson (1927) gives a table listing as complete a sum- 

 mary of the gray kingbird's food as I have found. It is an ac- 

 count of an analysis of 89 stomachs studied by Dr. Alexander Wet- 

 more (1916) in Puerto Kico. 



A digest of the full information given by Dr. Wetmore follows: 

 Vegetable matter comprised some 22.44 percent and animal matter 

 77.60 percent. Of the former, the items are broken down as follows: 



Seeds and fruits comprise 22.06 percent, while vegetable rubbish amounts to 

 only 0.38 percent. The berries borne by the royal palm (Roijstonea horinquena) 

 and other species of the same family are favorites, as are those of the espino 

 {Xanthoxylum spp.), a fruit with little pulp and a peculiarly reticulated seed. 

 Seeds of various euphorbias and of plants of the nightshade family are also 

 sought greedily, and one third had eatea seeds of the Santa Maria (Lantana 

 sp.), a pernicious weed not of major importance in Puerto Rico though very 

 troublesome under similar conditions in Hawaii. The moral {Cordia spp.) 

 was perhaps the favorite, being found in 12 stomachs. The fruits eaten were 

 all wild and none are of commercial importance. 



The animal matter (77.56 percent) is listed as follows : 



Percent 

 Mole crickets 2.36 



Other Orthoptera 0.95 



Earwigs 4. 72 



Homoptera (largely cicadas) — 1.97 



Stink bugs 2.12 



Other bugs 0.68 



Cane-root weevils 17. 19 



Stalk-boring weevils 5. 30 



Miscellaneous weevils 1. 34 



Percent 



Coleoptera 1. 3 



Honeybees (workers) 2.21 



Bees, mostly wild 15.28 



Other Hymenoptera (mostly 



wasps) 11.33 



Moths and caterpillars 4. 75 



Miscellaneous invertebrates 2. 42 



Lizards 3. 64 



Richard Hill, of Spanish Town, Jamaica, already quoted in regard 

 to the berry-eating habit, imparts a rather remarkable predaceous 

 practice of the gray kingbird in "seizing hummingbirds, as they 

 hover over blossoms * * * killing the prey by repeated blows 

 struck on a branch and then devouring them." Strange tactics for a 

 flycatcher certainly, and probably confined to the tropical portion of 

 its range. It will be recalled that some of the goatsuckers include 

 small birds in their diet, whether intentionally or not being yet 

 somewhat obscure, but such action on the part of the gray kingbird 

 appears to be an utterly deliberate and unique habit. The case of 

 &gg destruction implied by F. M. Weston cannot be laid to dietary 



