20 



FOOD OF SOME WELL-KNOWN BIEDS. 



available, all taken in the months 



to build its nest, while it forages in the orchard and about the 

 deserted garden and cattle yards. Normally it makes its nest in 

 natural cavities in trees and in the abandoned holes of woodpeckers. 

 In the detsrmination of this bird's food only 90 stomachs were 



from April to December, in- 

 clusive. So few 

 stomachs, spread 

 over so long a- 

 time, can but give 

 general ideas as 

 to the food, and 

 conclusions drawn 

 therefrom must be 

 considered as only 

 tentative. The 

 stomach contents 

 were found to con- 

 sist of 92.32 per 

 cent of animal 

 matter to 7.68 per 

 cent of vegetable. 

 Animal food. — 

 Among the fly- 

 catchers the ash- 

 throat is one of 

 the lesser eaters of 

 beetles. Beetles 

 aggregate only 

 7.26 per cent, and, 

 of these, 2.15 per 

 cent can be consid- 

 ered as of useful 

 species. These last 

 consist of preda- 

 ceous ground bee- 

 tles ( Carabidae) 

 found in 3 stom- 

 achs, and a lady- 

 bird ( Coccinel- 

 lidfe) found in 1 stomach. Other beetles, belonging to 7 different 

 families, were found in 60 stomachs, or two-thirds of the whole num- 

 hev. Hymeno^Dtera amount to 26.94 per cent and are the largest 

 item of animal food. "Wild bees and wasps make up the bulk of this 

 item, with a few of the parasitic species. No honey bees were found. 



506 



Fig. 8. — A'sh thioited flveatchai 



