72 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
more than secondary importance, but as cultivation spreads the bird 
will be forced more and more to reside in cultivated districts. 
The number of stomachs available for examination is 165, and as 
they represent every month except July they afford a fair idea of the 
salient features of the bird’s yearly food. Of this 52 percent is 
animal matter, insects and spiders, and 48 percent of various vegetable 
substances. 
-lnimal food—The most important item of the animal food con- 
sists of ants and wasps (Hymenoptera), which amount to 23 percent 
of the whole. This is in strong contrast to the bush tit, whose diet 
contains scarcely any of these insects. About half of the Hymenop- 
tera are ants. This is exactly what might be expected of a bird of 
such terrestrial habits and one so given to lurking under bushes and 
about decayed logs and rubbish. The other insects of this order 
are small wasps. Beetles, collectively, the next most important item 
of food, amount to about 10 percent. The only useful species iden- 
tified were a few ladybirds (Coccinellide), and a separate account of 
these was kept in order to estimate the harm done by their destruc- 
tion. The result shows that the diet of the wren tit contains less than 
1 percent of these useful beetles. The remaining beetles belong to 
various families, all of them harmful to vegetation. Caterpillars 
constitute a little less than 8 percent of the food, and are a very con- 
stant element of the diet. They appear to be eaten at all seasons, but’ 
in the early summer they amount to about one-fourth of the food. 
Quite a number of cocoons of tineid moths also were present in the 
food. 
Bugs (Hemiptera) are eaten to the extent of about 7 percent of the 
animal diet. In this respect the wren tit differs from the bush tit, 
over 44 percent of whose food is made up of these noxious insects. 
In one particular, however, the two birds are alike; scales (Coccide) 
are prominent in the food of both. The black olive scale (Saéssetia 
olen) and the greedy scale (lspidiotus rapurc) were identified in the 
stomachs of both birds, and many not specifically identified were 
found. The scales were probably obtained from orchards, as it is 
not likely that these insects have spread to wild plants and forest 
trees. as seales are to be had at all seasons they are a constant 
clement of the food of tits. The remaining amimal food, less than 
5 percent, is composed of various insects and some spiders. One 
stomach contained the legs of a grasshopper and another the remains 
of a wood-cricket. These are the only orthopterous remains in any 
stomach. hes (Diptera) were eaten very sparingly. Spiders ap- 
peared ina great many stomachs but not in large numbers. They 
amount to a little less than 2 percent of the food. In one stomach 
were found 26 mites, commonly parasitic on beetles and other insects. 
Their hosts had probably been eaten by the tit. 
