VIREOS. 41 
larity and appear in the food of every month. The consumption of 
ladybirds is very moderate for a vireo, and on the whole the bird 
probably does not do much harm in this way. All the other beetles 
are harmful, as are most of the other insects which compose the bird’s 
food. 
HUTTON VIREO. 
(Vireo huttoni.) 
This species is a resident of most parts of California west of the 
great interior valley. In food habits it does not differ remarkably 
from the foregoing, but the various elements of its food are in 
slightly different proportions. 
Vegetable food—Examination of 54 stomachs shows that less than 
2 percent is composed of miscellaneous articles of vegetable origin. 
One stomach contained a few seeds of elderberries, two contained 
those of poison oak, and these with a few galls and some rubbish 
make up the whole of this part of the food. It would seem that with 
most of the vireos vegetable matter is taken accidentally, or possibly 
experimentally to see how it tastes, rather than as an approved article 
of diet. 
Animal food —Of the 98 percent of animal food the largest item is 
Hemiptera, as is the case with many of the vireos, titmice, and gnat- 
catchers. These insects amount to 49 percent of the food of the pres- 
ent species, and are represented by the following families: Assassin- 
bugs, leaf-bugs, stink-bugs, leaf-hoppers, tree-hoppers, jumping 
plant-lice, and bark scales. These last consist, as is so often the case, 
of the black scale, which appeared in 8 stomachs. Caterpillars, with 
a few moths and cocoons, are next in importance, and constitute over 
22 percent of the food. These two items not only make up more than 
two-thirds of the diet, but are eaten with great regularity through the 
year and seem to be the staples of the bird’s food. 
Beetles, collectively, amount to nearly 11 percent. Of these 8 per- 
cent are ladybirds, somewhat more than were eaten by the Cassin 
vireo, but only half of the amount eaten by the Swainson vireo. The 
remaining beetles, less than 3 percent, were largely weevils, among 
which a few engravers (Scolytide) could be distinguished. Hyme- 
noptera, including both wasps and ants, form about 7 percent of the 
food. Among them several parasitic ones were identified, but there 
were not enough to be of any great economic interest. A few mis- 
cellaneous and unidentified insects amount to nearly 5 percent of the 
food. Flies and grasshoppers make up a part of this, but they are 
only rarely eaten. Spiders are consumed regularly but sparingly. 
They amount to a little more than 2 percent. 
