70 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
Other insects aggregate a little more than 5 percent. Tuipulid flies 
(daddy-long-legs) were found in several stomachs, as were grass- 
hoppers also. One stomach contained the remains of 13 of the latter, 
a remarkable number for so small a bird, but the bulk was not great, 
and they were probably the débris of several meals. Spiders are 
a very constant article of food, but do not appear in great numbers, 
as the average for the year is somewhat less than 1 percent. 
Vegetable food—In the vegetable food of the plain tit, fruit 
amounts to nearly 82 percent. Fruit is a rather surprising item of 
the food of this bird, as no one, so far as the writer can learn, has 
ever accused it of destroving fruit. The quantity is three times as 
much as is eaten by the linnet, and is another illustration of the fact 
that in estimating the status of a species the number of individuals 
as well as the amount eaten by cach individual must be considered. 
The fruit consumed appears to be of the larger cultivated varieties, 
as no seeds of wild berrics were found. 
Cherries were identified in a number of stomachs, and pulp of the 
larger fruits was abundant. As considerable of this was contained 
in stomachs taken in the late fall and winter months, it is evident 
that it was refuse left on the tree and of no value. Not only does the 
plain tit eat fruit, but to some extent it indulges also in grain. Oats 
were found in a number of stomachs and constituted nearly 30 per- 
cent of the contents of two stomachs taken in January. Grain is 
probably not eaten to any considerable extent, however, as the amount 
for the year is but little over 1.5 percent, and oats was the only variety 
identified. Leaf galls, seeds of poison oak, weed seeds, unidentifiable 
matter and rubbish make up the remainder, 24 percent, of the vege- 
table food. None of these are of much economic importance, except 
that the distribution of poison-oak seed is a nuisance. 
SUMMARY. 
From this somewhat imperfect review of the food of the plain tit 
it is evident that in its present numbers it is useful. The insects it 
eats are practically all harmful and the scales exceedingly so. More- 
over, its habit of foraging in trees enables it to capture some of the 
worst enemies of fruit and renders its work in this direction invalu- 
able. On the other hand, it cats quite a large percentage of fruit, 
most of which appears to be of cultivated varieties, and should the 
bird ever become as abundant as the linnet now is it would undoubt- 
edly be a pest. This contingency, however, is extremely unlikely. 
CTLESTNUT-SIDED CTITCICADEE, 
(Parus rufescens subspp. ) 
While this bird at present inhabits mountain regions rather than 
orchards, still it may not be out of place to give a short digest of our 
