38 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



how or when this is done. Probably there is a postnuptial molt of 

 the body plumage late in fall and a molt of the flight feathers late 

 in winter. I have seen an adult female, taken March 20, that was 

 molting about the throat and apparently molting the tail, the wings 

 apparently having been renewed.] 



Food. — With a species as restricted in range in this country as the 

 gray kingbird is, one cannot find a great deal in regard to the specific 

 character of its food. Most of the information available relates to 

 the range in the Tropics. However, being what it is, a typical fly- 

 catcher, the general hature of the diet is obvious. It is inevitable 

 that insects predominate, but exact information is limited. As I have 

 had no experience in the stomach analysis and have not collected 

 the species, I depend entirely upon the findings of others. 



Arthur H. Howell (1932) gives results on two stomachs only. One 

 "from St. George Island contained only insect remains, of which 

 Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, etc.) composed 61 percent, a large wood- 

 boring beetle 31 percent, and bugs 5 percent." Another was "a speci- 

 men taken at Cape Sable" which had eaten "3 large dragon flies, 1 

 bee, and 10 berries of the gumbo-limbo, or West Indian birch 

 {Elaphrium simaruba) ." 



The berry-eating habit seems to be characteristic, as it has been 

 noted in other parts of the range, foreign as well as domestic. Rela- 

 tive to the former, Richard Hill, of Spanish Town, Jamaica, is 

 quoted in Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1905) as saying that the gray 

 kingbird eats "wild sweet berries, especially those of the pimento." 



South Florida is replete with many tropical plants, and since the 

 gray kingbird is so abundant in that part of the State it is natural 

 that its berry-eating propensities would include several species un- 

 known in other parts of the country. The gumbo-limbo, mentioned 

 by Howell, is a very characteristic tree of extreme southern Florida, 

 a remarkable growth in many respects, commonly found in nearly 

 every "hammock" and a favorite tree of the beautiful Ligwis, or 

 arboreal snail. The soapberry {Sapindus saponaria) is also very 

 common, particularly about the Sable Capes, where I have found it 

 in several hammocks. Though not specifically mentioned in the food 

 of the gray kingbird, its great bunches of berries could hardly fail 

 to attract this species, and examination of stomachs in that locality 

 might well reveal evidences of this growth. Wetmore (1916) states 

 that berries of the royal palm {Roystonea horinquena) are freely 

 eaten in Puerto Rico, and since this magnificent tree is still found 

 in isolated spots in south Florida, it undoubtedly figures in the diet 

 of the species also. 



In cultivated districts the positively beneficial results of the gray 

 kingbird's food habits are illustrated by the reputation imparted to 

 it in the Virgin Islands, where it destroys cotton pests. Charles E. 



