30 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
be found in the older orchards. The eastern species (M. crinitus), 
which nests in hollow trees, habitually places the shed skin of a snake 
in the walls of its nest. The reason for this is not plain, but the writer 
has never seen or heard of a nest in which the snake skin was lacking. 
The ash-throat occasionally does the same thing, but apparently does 
not consider the snake skin indispensable. Though an orchard bird, 
it seldom eats any cultivated fruit, but confines its diet largely to 
insects, most of which are either injurious or neutral. 
In the following investigation of the ash-throat, 80 stomachs were 
used, collected from April to December inclusive, but only one in 
each month after July. Animal food amounts to 92 percent and veg- 
etable to 8 percent for the season. Stomachs taken in April, May, 
August, October, and November contained no vegetable food what- 
ever. The one stomach taken in September held 44 percent of elder- 
berries, which is exceptional. A greater number of stomachs in this 
month would probably have reduced this percentage considerably. 
Animal food.—Of the animal food, beetles, almost entirely of harm- 
ful species, amount to 5 percent. The two families most prominent 
in the food are the longicorns (Cerambycide) and the metallic wood- 
borers (Buprestidee), which are the very ones whose larve are so 
extensively eaten by woodpeckers. Next to these were the click 
beetles (Elateride), that bore into various plants and do much dam- 
age, and a few weevils or snout beetles (Rhynchophora). A ground 
beetle (Carabide) was found in one stomach, and a ladybird (Coc- 
cinellidse) in another, these being the only useful beetles taken. 
Bees, wasps, and a few ants (Hymenoptera) amount to 27 percent. 
They are eaten regularly in every month when the bird is on its sum- 
mer range. Five stomachs were taken in the vicinity of an apiary, 
but not one of them contained a trace of a honey bee, though one 
bird had eaten 24 percent of robber flies (Asilidxe), which have been 
known to prey upon bees. 
Bugs (Hemiptera) aggregate about 20 percent of the food of the 
ash-throat, which is the largest showing for that order of insects yet 
found in the food of any flycatcher. They were all eaten in the 
months from May to August inclusive, and form a good percentage 
in each of those months. They belong to the families of stinkbugs 
(Pentatomidw), shield bugs (Scutelleridx), leafhoppers (Jasside), 
jumping plant lice (Psyllidw), common plant lice (Aphidide), tree 
hoppers (Membracidie), cicadas (Cicadid), and assassin bugs (Redu- 
viidie). The last is a family of predaccous insects which are useful, 
as they destroy some harmful insects, but all the others are injurious, 
and some are pests. While many of these are taken upon the wing, 
probably some are picked from plants. One bird was seen on a mus- 
tard plant feeding upon the plant lice, which completely infested the 
