22 



FOOD OF THE FLYCATCHERS. 



DIPTERA (flies). 

 Bombylius sp 1 



HEMIPTERA (bugs). 



Eurygaster alternatus 1 



Podisus modestus 1 



Euschistus servus 1 



Nezara sp 2 



Calocoris rapidus 1 



Vegetable food. — Although vegetable food amounts to 9.39 per 

 cent, it presents but little variety. A few weed seeds occurred in 

 one stomach. Seeds and skins of elderberries (Sambucus) were 

 found in 11 stomachs, woodbine (Psedera) in 2, hawthorn berries 

 (Crataegus) in 1, an olive in 1, and skin and pulp of fruit not further 

 identified in 2. 



The following fruits were found in the stomachs: 



Virginia creeper (Psedera quinque- 



folia) 2 



Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.) 1 



Elderberry (Sambucus sp.) 11 



Olive (Olea europxa) 1 



Summary. — The vegetable food of the Arkansas kingbird is of so 

 little economic importance that it may be dismissed without further 

 comment. The animal food is open to adverse criticism in only 

 one point — the useful beetles. But even if it be admitted that the 

 destruction of these is harmful to man's interests, the amount of 

 damage is so small as to be completely overbalanced by the good 

 done in other directions. The charge that the bird destroys honey- 

 bees is not sustained by the results of this investigation. On the 

 whole, it appears that the Arkansas kingbird is one of the most 

 useful birds in the region where it is found. 



CASSIN'S KINGBIRD. 



(Ti/ni mi us vOC&fi runs.) 



Cassin's kingbird occupies in the breeding season the western por- 

 tion of the United States from the eastern slope of tho Rocky Moun- 

 tains westward to the Pacific and north to central California and 

 southern Wyoming. It is rather irregularly distributed in this 

 region ami is entirely wanting over considerable areas, like the 

 two preceding species it prefers open, parklike country to forests, 

 but it is said to be more of a mountain bird and to breed at higher 

 altitudes. Tho habits of the bird must differ somewhat in different 

 localities or at different seasons. Maj. Bendire says of it: "Cas- 

 sin's kingbird is neither as noisy nor as quarrelsome as the preceding 

 species" [T. verticalis]. 1 



Life Histories of North American Birds, I, p. 260, 1806. 



