﻿rOOD HABITS OP THE VIEEOS 3 



Table 1. — Percentages of various items in the food of vireos — Continued 



Species, 



Cater- 

 pillars 



Other 

 Lepid- 

 optera 



Penta- 

 tomi- 

 dae 



Other 

 Hemi- 

 ptera 



Hy- 

 men- 

 op tera 



Dip- 



tera 



Other 

 insects 



Arach- 

 nida 



11.75 



2.50 





2.75 



3.00 





10.00 



39.25 



32.43 



2.76 



7.03 



8.33 



10.79 



4.46 



4.59 



4.05 



24.13 



2.17 



1.67 



8.79 



13.96 



11.76 



1.14 



4.34 



35.40 



4.99 



5.47 



11.24 



5.97 



9.46 



4.44 



1.74 



23.10 



19.35 



15.50 



7.62 



5.07 



7.36 



4.92 



2.38 



22.49 



9.31 



20.13 



10.29 



6.86 



4.29 



6.56 



2.63 



20.66 



9.83 



8.56 



11.71 



7.23 



4.41 



9.10 



3.59 



12.22 



12.33 



20.15 



25.73 



6.30 



2.99 



3.21 



2.05 



15.89 



4.74 



9.34 



25. 09 



6.44 



.78 



18.77 



2.71 



Other 



animal 



matter 



Black-whiskered vireo ( Vire- 

 osylva calidris) 



Red-eyed vireo ( Vireosylva 

 olivacea).. .-.^.- 



Philadelphia vireo ( Vinn- 

 sylva pMladdphica) 



Warbling vireos ( Vheosylva. 

 gilra, subspp.) 



Yellow-throated vireo {Lani- 

 vireo ftavifrons) 



Blue-headed vireos (Lani- 

 virco soliiarius, subspp.)... 



White-eyed vireos ( Vireo 

 griseus, subspp.) 



Hutton vireos ( Vireo hutioni, 

 subspp.) 



Bell vireos ( Vireo belli, sub- 

 spp.) 



Trace. 



0.06 

 .25 



In the fall, mnter, and spring months, when insects are in hiberna- 

 tion, the vireos which reniain in this country turn to plants for 

 part of their food. The vegetable food varies according to the species, 

 as shown in Table 1, from 0.7 per cent to 14.72 per cent of the total.^ 

 In no case did stomachs of any of the vireos contain a large proportion 

 of cultivated fruit, and very few stomachs had any; so that, as fruit 

 eaters the vireos are practically harmless. In all species almost the 

 entire bulk of the animal food was made up of insects. 



A list of all the items identified in the food of the vireos, showing 

 the number of stomachs in which each item was found, is given in 

 Tables 2 and 3, beginning on page 28. 



BLACK-WHISKERED VIREO 



Vireosylva calidris barbatula 



The black-whiskered vireo is found in the United States only in the 

 southern portions of Florida, where it is fairly common in the vicinity 

 of Key TV est, and may be found as far north as Anclote Keys. Un- 

 fortunately, only four stomachs were available for examination, 

 collected on Anclote Key, May 21 and 22, and at Seven Oaks, June 7. 



Of the entire food, 87.5 per cent was of animal origin. By far the 

 largest single item was spiders, 39.25 per cent of the whole; in one 

 stomach were the remains of 10 individuals of one kind (Tetragnatha). 

 Caterpillars and eggs of some moth or butterfly made up 14.25 per 

 cent of the food. In one stomach were 10 small earwigs (Forficulidae) , 

 which represented about 10 per cent of the animal food. Miscel- 

 laneous beetles, including weevils from one stomach, made up 18.25 

 per cent, and the remaining 5.75 per cent was composed of wasps or 

 Decs and assassin bugs (Reduviidae). 



The vegetable food, 12.5 per cent of the total, was composed of 

 fruit of barberry (Berheris) and of ragweed (Ambrosia), found in 

 three of the four stomachs. 



» The figures available show no vegetable food for the gray viroo; but thislis probably not trustworthy, 

 because of the very small number of stomach;? rep rp-sen ting the full mr)nths. 



