GNATCATCHERS, 89 
FOOD OF YOUNG. 
Among the stomachs examined were those of 25 nestlings taken in 
June and July. Their approximate ages and dates of capture are 
given in the following table: 
| Age 
Brood | Number of be | Dateot 
(approxi- = 
No. young. mate). taking. 
t | 
| Days. 
1 | Three . 2|/June 8 
2 | Four...... 8/ June 8 
3 | Three 4|June 15 
4; Three 14] June 19 
5 | Three 4| July 21 
Bef DO warns 8 | July 25 
HT SIN Obs iaccnen 14] June 13 
8 | Bivelccase 7 | July 16 
Taking the collection as a whole their stomachs contained 92.6 per- | 
cent animal matter to 7.4 percent of vegetable. Caterpillars agegre- 
gate nearly 27 percent and were found in every stomach but 7. No 
other element was so abundant. Beetles collectively are next in 
importance, with 22 percent. Of these the useful Carabide amount to 
7.7 percent and are very irregularly distributed. All the remain- 
der are more or less harmful species. Bugs (Hemiptera) ageregate 
13.8 percent. Five families of these were identified, viz., stink-bugs, 
leat-hoppers, tree-hoppers, shield-bugs, and cicadas. Ants and a few 
other Hymenoptera amount to 12 percent, and spiders to exactly the 
same. These last were mostly harvest-men or daddy-long-legs (Pha- 
langide). A few miscellaneous insects amount to 6 percent, which 
makes up the whole of the animal food. Four stomachs of the russet- 
back contained remains of grasshoppers and three of these were nest- 
lings. Carabid beetles were eaten by the young birds to the extent of 
7.7 percent, which is more than three times the amount eaten by the 
adults. This is rather singular, for most of these insects are very 
hard-shelled and not at all the kind of food usually selected for young 
birds. Another interesting point is that all were contained in the 
stomachs of broods Nos. 2, 4, and 5. None of the other nestlings’ 
stomachs held a trace of them. , 
The vegetable food amounts to 6.8 percent of fruit, with less than 
1 percent of two or three other things. The fruit was nearly all 
either blackberries or raspberries, which were found in 11 stomachs, 
with twin berries in 1. One seed of filaree and some rubbish made up 
the rest of the vegetable food. 
While the above affords a general idea of the food of these nest- 
lings as a whole, there are some differences in the food of the different 
broods, which may be worthy of notice. The stomachs of broods Nos. 
1,2, and 6 contained no vegetable matter, as was the case with one each 
of broods 3 and 5. Broods 4, 7, and 8 had all eaten vegetable food, 
