NUTHATCHES AND TITMICE. 71 
knowledge of its food. Fifty-seven stomachs were available for 
examination, and these were taken in every month of the vear, 
except: March, April, and May. The food consisted of nearly 65 
percent of animal matter and 35 of vegetable. 
Animal food—Caterpillars constitute 18 percent of the animal 
portion. They were found in nearly every month in which stomachs 
were taken, there being a fairly good percentage even in January and 
December. The greatest amount, 53 percent, was eaten in August. 
Hemiptera, consisting of leaf-hoppers, tree-hoppers, and olive and 
other scales, constitute the most important item of food, and amount 
to about 25 percent. These were found in all except two winter 
months. Wasps were eaten to the extent of 13 percent of the food, 
but no ants were found. Beetles amount to less than 2 percent of 
the food, but nearly all are noxious; weevils appeared in one stomach. 
Flies and grasshoppers are conspicuous by their absence, and not 
even a trace of one was discovered. Spiders are a very constant ele- 
ment of the food of nearly all the titmice. In that of the chestnut- 
side they amount to nearly 7 percent for the year, though in August 
they constitute nearly 16 percent. 
Vegetable food—The vegetable portion of the food consists of 
fruit pulp 8 percent, seeds nearly 20 percent, and miscellaneous mat- 
ter 7 percent. Fruit pulp was found only in a few stomachs taken in 
the fall and winter and was probably waste fruit. The seeds eaten 
were mostly those of coniferous trees, as was to be expected of a bird 
which spends so much of its life in evergreen forests. The miscel- 
laneous items of the vegetable food are leaf galls, bits of moss, and 
rubbish. 
SUMMARY. 
The above sketch of the chestnut-sided chickadee, while very 
imperfect, suffices to show the general character of its food. A few 
stomachs also of the mountain chickadee (Purus gambeli) have been 
examined and the contents found to agree in a general way with the 
food of others of the group. 
WREN TIT. 
(Chamaeca fasciata subspp.) 
This modest, secretive bird, like the eastern chat, is more often 
heard than seen. At present it does not often live in orchards and gar- 
dens, and when it visits these it sticks closely to hedges and the denser 
parts of the shrubbery. In general it keeps to its original abiding 
places in the dense chaparral of canyons and hillsides. So long as it 
is confined chiefly to these situations its food habits will never be of 
