SONGLESS BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 239 
twenty-four female gipsy moths, and they killed in that time 
a great many more that could not be positively 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, having good 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 were 
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 working bees found ; and the destruction of drones by 
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 Kingbirds were absent; but when these flies had done 
their work, when the moths had begun to emerge, and when 
an injurious or secondary parasite, Theronia melanocephala, 
was depositing its eggs in the living bodies of the beneficial 
