LEAST FLYCATCHER 219 



He lists 67 species of beetles as identified in the food, but useful 

 beetles amount to only 1.41 percent, and harmful beetles total 19.94 

 percent. The average for Hemiptera is 11.12 percent, for Diptera 

 11.34 percent, for Orthoptera 2.59 percent, and for Lepidoptera, both 

 moths and caterpillars, 7.27 percent. "Ephemerids found in one 

 stomach, dragon flies found in 3, and an unidentified insect in 1, 

 make up 0.95 per cent. One stomach was entirely filled with a large 

 dragon fly. Flycatchers are among the comparatively small number 

 of birds expert enough to catch dragon flies on the wing, and these 

 insects are too wary to be taken sitting. Spiders are eaten to a small 

 extent in every month in the season * * * 2.11 per cent." 



Of the vegetable food he says: "Fruit amounts to 1.83 per cent, 

 and consists of Kubus seeds found in 2 stomachs, elderberry seeds in 

 2, pokeberry seeds in 1, rough-leaved cornel in 1, and fruit skins not 

 further identified in 4. Various seeds were contained in 6 stomachs, 

 and rubbish in 3 ; altogether they amount to 0.34 per cent." 



W. L. McAtee (1926) says that "insects injurious to woodlands 

 which are eaten by this flycatcher include carpenter ants, gipsy 

 moths, click beetles, leaf beetles, nut weevils, tree hoppers, leaf hop- 

 pers, and leaf bugs." To this list might be added cankerworms, or 

 inchworms, which it catches in the air as the worms spin down to the 

 ground on their webs. The bird also picks off many of these and 

 other caterpillars from the leaves while hovering in the air. 



Dr. Dickey writes (MS.) : "Once a flycatcher performed a singular, 

 spiral flight, a distance of 8 yards, to pursue over a little glade a 

 speeding beefly {BombyciUus). They are prone to approach spider 

 webs and small caterpillars that dangle from silken cords. They 

 lean out from twigs and cleanse the webs of these desiderata. They 

 even mount high in dead branches, scan the nooks and corners, and 

 show by their every movement that they are finding the nourishment 

 conducive to their sprightliness. Rarely I observed a flycatcher pass 

 close to the ground, brush almost the tops of sickle sedges, and snap 

 some stray bug, then return to an alder branch to devour it." 



Behavior. — Mr. Forbush (1927) says that the least flycatcher "is 

 the smallest, earliest, tamest, smartest, bravest, noisiest, and most 

 prominent member of its genus in New England," and it is certainly 

 entitled to all these superlatives. The earliest arrivals are much in 

 evidence, as their emphatic calls advertise their presence in our 

 orchards and gardens, as well as everywhere in the open countryside, 

 along roads and on the borders of the woods. One does not have 

 to look far before he sees the trim little warrior perched upright on 

 some bare twig, the top of a post or on a convenient wire, or even 

 on the top of some low bush or tall dead weed stalk. He shows his 

 tameness, or his indifference to our presence by darting out to snatch 



