12 FOOD OF THE FLYCATCHEES. 



inclusive, though only 3 were collected in March and 1 in October. 

 The other months were well represented. Geographically they are 

 distributed through 29 States, the District of Columbia, and British 

 America. The food is composed of 88.93 per cent of animal matter 

 to 11.07 of vegetable. The former is made up of insects and a few 

 spiders, the latter is mostly small fruit. 



Animal food. — Useful beetles, mostly the predaceous ground 

 beetles (Carabidae), amount to 4.64 per cent for the whole period. 

 The 1 stomach taken in October contained 12 per cent, but in July, 

 when 157 stomachs were examined, the average was less than 7 per 

 cent. The rose chafer, more commonly known as the rose bug 

 (Macrodactylus suhspinosa), is not much eaten by birds. It comes, 

 usually in swarms, about the month of June when the roses bloom. 

 It is very destructive to roses and some other flowers. The kingbird 

 seems to have a special liking for this insect, as it was found in 24 

 stomachs and 1 contained 40 individuals. Other beetles identified, 

 that are of special economic importance, are the asparagus beetle 

 (Crioceris asparagi), the spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica 12- 

 punctata), and the locust leaf miner (Odontota dorsalis). The last 

 sometimes completely defoliates locust trees. One stomach held over 

 100 specimens of a small dung beetle (Aphodius inquinatus), which 

 sometimes flit's in swarms in the late afternoon, when it is probably 

 taken by the kingbird. A few stomachs were collected in the cotton 

 fields of Texas, and 4 of them contained remains of the notorious 

 cotton-boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis). Several other stomachs 

 contained the clover-loaf weevil {Phytonomus imnctatus) and the 

 imbricated snout beetle (Epicxrus imbricatus). All of these are pests, 

 and the latter seems to feed upon nearly every variety of fruit and 

 vegetable. SpTienophorus sea , the corn weevil, which feeds upon the 

 roots and stalks of corn, was identified in 1 stomach. 



Perhaps the most surprising and unexpected components of this 

 bird's food are the blister beetles (Meloidae). They appear in the food 

 to some extent in every month in which stomachs were collected (except 

 the 1 stomach in October) ; and in September, when 40 stomachs were 

 taken, they amount to 11.55 per cent of the whole food for that month. 

 For the entire eight months they aggregate 2.69 per cent, which is 

 not a large percentage, but the wonder is that they are eaten at all. 

 As is well known, these insects contain the drug commonly known as 

 cantharadin. which beside its property of blistering the skin produces 

 other peculiar physiological effects when taken internally. It seems 

 hardly credible that a bird could eat without harm an insect that 

 causes a blister when crushed upon the human skin, but that this bird 

 does eat them, and apparently as many of them as it can get, is shown 

 by the fact that 8 of these beetles were found in 1 stomach, 10 in 

 another, 11 in each of 2 others, 13 in each of 4, and 14 in another. 

 They were found in 70 stomachs, or over 11 per cent of the whole, and 



