66 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
that it corresponds closely to that of the other species of the family 
discussed in foregoing pages. 
From this somewhat limited investigation of the food of the 
California wrens several points may be regarded as established: 
(1) That these wrens are essentially insectivorous; (2) that an over- 
whelming majority of the insects composing their food are harmful 
species; (3) that the quantity of vegetable food eaten is so small as 
to have no economic importance. 
CALIFORNIA CREEPER. 
(Certhia familiaris occidentalis.) 
Only 7 stomachs of the California creeper were available for 
examination, but they confirm the good opinion observers have 
formed of the habits of this bird. Like the titmice and nuthatches, 
the creeper is an indefatigable forager on the trunks and branches 
of trees, and the food it obtains there is of the same nature—that is, 
small beetles (inany of them weevils), wasps, ants, bugs, caterpillars, 
and a few spiders. Of the 7 stomachs examined, only 1 contained 
vegetable food, and this had only 19 percent of seed, too much digested 
for identification. 
While the creeper is not systematically classed with the nuthatches 
and titmice, its food habits closely ally it to these birds and to the 
wrens, and whatever good is true of them applies with equal force 
to the creeper. 
NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE. 
(Paridee. ) 
Few families of birds contain so many absolutely harmless and 
thoroughly useful species as that of the nuthatches and titmice. All 
of the American species are small, and several are so minute that the 
larger species of humming birds exceed them in size. In colors they 
are neither brilliant nor showy, black, white, brown, and gray being 
the predominant tints of their plumage. In manners and voice they 
are equally unobtrusive, and so little do their movements attract atten- 
tion that one may be surrounded by them in the forest before he is 
conscious of their presence. More than forty species and subspecies 
of the titmouse family reside within the limits of the United States, 
of which some fifteen live in California. 
From an economic standpoint the titmice are the reverse of insig- 
nificant. They are essentially inhabitants of trees and shrubs, and 
obtain abnost their entire living from them. Their food consists 
largely of small insects and their eges and larve, and, as the individ- 
uals of most of the species are numerous and spend all the daylight 
hours searching for food, it follows that the number of harmful 
