312 BULLETIN 17 9, IHSTITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



wing-bands and edges of remiges wood brown or cinnamon." In 

 the young birds that I have seen, the wing bands are decidedly 

 "cinnamon," and the edgings on the secondaries and t^rtials are 

 merely "wood brown" or pale buff. How long this juvenal plumage 

 is worn we do not seem to know. 



Adults evidently have a complete molt late in summer or in fall, 

 perhaps before they go south. I have seen adults in badly worn 

 plumage in July; and Mr. Swarth (1929) reports a female, shot on 

 September 13, that had nearly finished the annual molt and was in 

 fresh fall plumage. I have also seen adults, taken in April, that are 

 in worn plumage, which may indicate a partial prenuptial molt. 

 Adults in fall plumage are more decidedly olivaceous above and 

 more yellowish below than spring birds. 



Mr. Ridgway (1907) says that "some males have the feathers of 

 the pileum much longer, especially on the occiput, forming a very 

 distinct crest, and these elongated feathers are sooty in color, mar- 

 gined with grayish olive." But Dickey and van Rossem (1938) 

 write : "The variation in the color of the crown seems to be individual 

 and not due to age or sex, as supposed by Ridgway. Some fully 

 adult males which have completed the fall molt and are, therefore, 

 more than one year old, have the pileum absolutely concolor with 

 the back, and others (as certainly adult) have very dark, almost 

 sooty crowns. The same is true of females. An immature male 

 in first winter plumage is average in color, that is, with the crown 

 slightly, but obviously, darker than the rest of the upperparts." 



Food. — Allan R. Phillips wrote to me that he sent two stomachs 

 of the beardless flycatcher, collected near Tucson, Ariz., to the Bio- 

 logical Survey for analysis. These have recently been examined by 

 L. W. Saylor, and Dr. Clarence Cottam has sent me the results of 

 the analysis. Both stomachs contained 100 percent animal matter. 

 The contents of one were: Coccidae, 55 percent, five or more scales 

 and fragments thereof; Membracidae, 15 percent, fragments of head 

 and eye ; one Lepidoptera larva, 22 percent ; pupal fragments of two 

 Diptera pupae, 8 percent; and a trace of insect chitin. The other 

 contained: Coccidae, 48 percent, at least 14 scales and fragments; 

 two Lepidoptera larvae, 12 percent; two Coccinellidae larvae, 20 

 percent; three or more Grematog aster species, 5 percent; two Mem- 

 bracidae, 5 percent; and undetermined animal debris, 10 percent. 



Probably much of the above food was gleaned from the foliage 

 and the branches of trees and shrubs, for Mr. Phillips tells me that 

 it often gleans after the manner of kinglets, vireos, and warblers. 

 And Austin Paul Smith (1909) says: "In many instances have I 

 watched this mite simulate the Vireo's habit of branch inspection, 

 in the same time-careless manner." Evidently insects are not the 

 sole food of this flycatcher, for he "found it the premier seed-eater 



