SONGLESS BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 239 



twentj^-four female gipsy moths, and they killed in that time 

 a great many more that could not be positivel}^ identified. 



The Kingbird, therefore, is particularly beneficial about 

 the garden and orchard, for it eats very little, if any, culti- 

 vated fruit. The only bad habit attributed to this bird is 

 that of killing honey bees, and even while catching bees it 

 seems about as likely to do good as harm. Professor Beal 

 states that a bee raiser in Iowa, havino- o-ood reason to believe 

 that the Kingbirds were feeding upon his bees, shot a number 

 near his hives, but an expert entomologist could find no trace 

 of bees in their stomachs. The investigations of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture seem to indicate that the Kingbird does 

 not ordinarily reduce the aggregate number of working bees. 

 Only fourteen out of two hundred and eighty-one stomachs 

 examined contained any remains of honey bees. There Avere 

 but fifty bees found, forty of which were drones, only four 

 were positively identified as workers, and six were so much 

 broken as to render the distinguishing of sex impossible. 

 Professor Beal finds that the Kingbird feeds on robber flies, 

 — insects which prey largely on other insects, especially 

 honey bees. He considered nineteen robber flies contained 

 in the Kingbirds' stomachs to be more than an equivalent for 

 the workino; bees found : and the destruction of drones bv 

 Kingbirds is a benefit. On the whole, it seems probable 

 that, while the Kingbirds eat some bees, they confine their 

 bee-eating mainly to the drones, and also protect the bees 

 by killing the moths and flies that prey upon them. 



Dragon flies, which are believed to be useful insects, are 

 killed by Kingbirds, but apparently more from necessity 

 than choice, as the bird seems to pay little attention to them 

 when insects more to its taste are plentiful. In studying 

 the insect enemies of the gipsy moth, it was noticed that 

 Kingbirds occasionally caught ichneumon flies. It was seen, 

 however, that at the time when most of the beneficial ich- 

 neumon flies were depositing their eggs in the caterpillars, 

 the Kino-birds were absent ; but when these flies had done 

 their work, when the moths had l^egun to emerge, and when 

 an injurious or secondary parasite, Theronia melanocephala ., 

 was depositing its eggs in the living bodies of the beneficial 



