40 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
Apparently it had been doing the same thing for an hour, perhaps all 
the morning. These observations were made at 10 a. m., when the 
air was warm and insects were on the wing. Either the same bird 
or another was watched the next day at 9 a. m. near the same spot, 
and 17 captures were noted in eight minutes. This morning was 
cooler, and fewer insects were abroad than on the previous day. The 
mean of these two observations is 4 insects per minute. If the bird 
keeps this up foreven ten hours a day, the total is 2,400 insects. It 
hardly seems possible that one bird could eat so many unless they 
were very small, but this pewee is rarely seen when it is not actively 
hunting. When the young are in the nest, the parents must make 
great havoc with insects if the nestlings are fed at the above rate. 
The pewee remains in California only about six months in the year, 
but fortunately this is the season when insects are most numerous. 
One hundred and thirty-seven stomachs, taken in the months from 
April to September inclusive, were available for examination. 
Animal matter formed 99.91 percent of the contents and vegetable 
matter 0.09 percent, or less than one-tenth of 1 percent. The per- 
centage of animal matter is the highest yet found in the food of any 
flycatcher. 
Ammal food.—Beetles amount to about 5 percent of the food. 
With the exception of Carabide, found in 4 stomachs, and Coccinel- 
lide, in 5, all were either harmful or neutral species. 
The following beetles were identified: 
Coccinella 9-notata nevadica. Aphodius vittatus. 
Coccinella californica. Agrilus sp. Dov. 
Coccinella transversoguttata. Agriotes sp. 
Hippodamia ambigua. Gastroidea sp. 
EMippodamia convergens. Blapstinus sp. 
Hister bimaculatus. Ptilinus basalis. 
Saprinus plenus. Baris rubripes. 
Carpophilus hemipterus. 
Hymenoptera aggregate over 39 percent, and are of wild species— 
that is, there are no domestic bees among them. They were found 
in 93 stomachs, and in 14 there was nothing else. Parasitic species 
were identified in 7 stomachs and ants in only 2—an unusually small 
record for ants, which are favorite food with flycatchers. 
Hemiptera, or bugs, are evidently not esteemed as an article of 
diet by this bird, for they amount to less than 2 percent of the food. 
None were eaten in April or May, but nearly half the whole number 
were taken in August. 
Diptera amount to nearly 40 percent, slightly exceeding Hymenop- 
tera. No other flycatcher has yet been noted whose food contained 
more Diptera than Ilymenoptera; hence the name flycatcher is pecu- 
liarly applicable to this pewee. Diptera were found in 84 stomachs, 
