36 FOOD OF THE FLYCATCHEBS. 



SAY'S PHCEBE. 



(Sayornis sayus.) 



Say's phoebe is an inhabitant of western North America from the 

 Pacific Ocean eastward as far as western Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska, 

 and extends northward into Alaska. In the warmer southwestern 

 portions of the country it usually migrates northward, or else goes 

 up into the hills or mountains in the breeding season. For this 

 reason it is not often seen in the valleys in California during the 

 summer. It is a bird mostly of the open, though sometimes taken 

 in timber country. After the season of reproduction the pairs 

 apparently separate, and each alone is engaged in its perpetual hunt 

 for insects. It is domestic in its tastes, and in California, when it 

 returns from its summer range, it is apt to attach itself to some house 

 or other building and remain in that immediate vicinity all winter, 

 roosting at night in a cranny under the cornice or wherever it can 

 find snug, covered quarters. 



For the determination of this bird's food, 111 stomachs were 

 taken, representing every month of the year, but while too few to 

 give exact results, they will probably fix the bird's economic status 

 with a reasonable degree of accuracy. In the first analysis the food 

 was found to consist of 99.78 per cent of animal food to 0.22 per cent 

 of vegetable. 



Animal food. — Beetles of the three most useful families — Cicin- 

 delidae, Carabidae, and Coccinellidae — amount to 5.95 per cent of the 

 food. This is a surprisingly large percentage to be eaten by a fly- 

 catcher. They were found in every month except May and July, 

 and these months would no doubt have shown some had there been 

 more stomachs. They were found in 5, 26, and 15 stomachs, respect- 

 ively; that is to say, the greatest flyers, the cicindelids, which one 

 would suppose to be the most easily taken by a flycatcher, are chosen 

 the least, and the coccinellids, which live on trees and fly sluggishly, 

 are taken less than the carabids, that live almost wholly upon the 

 ground. Other beetles amount to 9.72 per cent, and are either 

 harmful or neutral species. 



Hymenoptera are the largest item of food, and with a greater 

 number of stomachs would undoubtedly hold that rank in every 

 month. We have, however, only two stomachs taken in May and 

 one in July, and these contain no Hymenoptera at all. In all the 

 other months there is a good percentage, and the average for the 

 year is 30.72 per cent. They are mostly bees and wasps, with a few 

 ants. No honeybees were found. 



Hemiptera are eaten very irregularly and in small quantities. 

 The total amounts to 4.45 per cent. Five families were represented, 



