FOOD OF WEST VinarxiA BIRDS 45 



Survey, "The Biological Survey has made an examination of 281 stom- 

 acks collected in various parts of the country, but found only 14 

 containing remains of honeybees. In these 14 stomachs there were in 

 all 50 honeybees, of which 40 were drones, 4 were certainly workers, 

 and the remaining six were too badly broken to be identified as to sex." 

 In my studies I have found evidences that these birds destroy many 

 harmful insects, and that they help the farmer by driving the Hawks 

 away from the poultry yard. They also eat many kinds of fruits, and 

 I have seen them feeding upon the mulberry, blackberry, raspberry, 

 Ilex mollis (holly), wild prickley gooseberry, common elder berry, and 

 sassafras. During the last days of August, 1915," \ found a flock of 

 about 75 of these birds feeding in a large grove of sasasfras bushes. 

 They ate large quantities of these aromatic berries, swallowing them 

 whole, then casting out the seads from the tops of nearby trees into 

 which the birds flew after gorging themselves with the fruit. The King- 

 bird is common in most parts of our State, especially so in the south- 

 eastern section. The Crested Flycatcher is another species that is 

 worthy of mention, and its food habits should be studied very carefully. 

 It is one of the largest members of the family, having a rich brown back, 

 light gray throat and breast and sulphur yellow belly. Usually these 

 birds are to be found in the woods, but occasionally they come out into 

 our orchards and vineyards. The food of this species consists of wood- 

 land insects and a little fruit. Last August I found the Crested Fly- 

 catcher feeding on the ripe fruit of the sassafras. In Bulletin No. 110 

 of the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Mr. Fred E. 

 Brooks says, "One of the vineyards in which the study of the grape- 

 vine root-borer was carried on extended along the side of an orchard 

 of pear trees. These trees, at the time the moths were flying, seemed 

 to be a favorite rsort for a family of Crested Flycatchers, and several 

 times these birds were seen hawking among the grape vines. On the 

 morning of Aug. 1, one of the Flycatchers was observed to leave the 

 top of a pear tree, catch some insect that was flying near the grape 

 vines, and then return to the tree. This procedure was repeated several 

 times, when the bird was shot and an examination made to ascertain 

 what insects it had been catching. This bird proved to be a young 

 female and its stomach contained seven of the root-borer moths, and one 

 large grasshopper, all of which had been recently swallowed. Two of 

 the moths were females, and these two contained 416 eggs which could 

 be counted. If this one examination indicated any thing like the extent 

 to which these Flycatchers were feeding upon the moths, then the bird 

 must be, in that locality at least, a very important factor in reducing 

 the number of borers. The seven moths had supplied only a breakfast 

 lor the bird, and if the same rate of feeding were kept up for a day 

 by the five or six Flycatchers that frequented the vicinity of the vineyard, 

 not less than a hundred moths would be consumed. It can therefore be 

 seen that any condition favoring the presence of these, as well as other 

 insectivorous birds, about a vineyard is greatly to be desired." 



"Among our early spring arrivals here in West Virginia is the Phoebe, 

 or "Pewee," as it is familiarly called. This bird becomes semi-domestic 



