190 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



Food habits. — The food of the phoebe, as shown by the 

 studies of Prof. Beal in the Biological Survey, consists of ani- 

 mal matter, 89.23 per cent and vegetable matter, 10.77 per 

 cent. The animal food is composed of spiders, ticks, millipeds, 

 and a large variety of insects, including ants, flies, mosquitoes, 

 stinkbugs, leafhoppers, click-beetles, May beetles, boll weevils, 

 grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, moths, and caterpillars. The 

 vegetable food includes a large number of fruits and seeds, 

 such as the berries of juniper, greenbrier, wax-myrtle, hack- 

 berry, pokeweed, sassafras, wild cherry, sumac, poison ivy, 

 poison sumac, holly, Virginia creeper, dogwood, and elder.* 

 The bird is everywhere considered a useful and attractive 

 addition to the life of the farm. 



OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER: Nuttallomis borealis 



(Swainson). 



State records. — The olive-sided flycatcher is probably a 

 regular migrant in the State on its journeys to and from its 

 breeding grounds in the North. Only two instances of its 

 occurrence are known, however, the first a bird seen by A. A. 

 Saunders, at Woodbine, May 9, 1908;t the second a specimen 

 taken by L. S. Golsan, at Autaugaville, October 17, 1915. 



General habits. — This flycatcher is a bird of the wilderness, 

 dwelling in summer chiefly in coniferous or mixed forests of 

 the Canadian Zone. It has the habit of perching often on 

 the topmost twig of some tall evergreen, whence it gives its 

 loud, vigorous call, pttt-pee-wee. 



WOOD PEWEE ; TICK-BIRD : Myiochanes virens 

 (Linnaeus) . 



State records. — The wood pewee is one of our commonest 

 and best known flycatchers, found in summer in all parts of 

 the State. It arrives from the South about the first or second 

 week in April. The first migrants were noted at Greensboro, 

 April 6 (1893) ; Thomasville, April 8 (1912) ; Autaugaville, 

 April 10 (1913); and Leighton, April 18 (1891). In fait 

 the birds linger late, having been seen at Leighton, October 11 

 (1891), and October 21 (1892) ; Anniston, October 15 (1916) ; 



•Beal, F. E. L., Biol. Surv. Bull. 44, pp. 30-85, 1912. 

 tSaunders, A. A., The Auk, vol. 26, p. 418, ISOS. 



