44 FOOD OF THE FLYCATCHERS. 



Summary. — The most prominent fact in the food habits of the 

 olive-sided flycatcher is its consumption of honeybees. As it eats 

 no vegetable matter worth mentioning, its record must rest on its 

 insect food, and honeybees constitute entirely too large a quota for 

 the best economic interests. Were the bird as abundant and as 

 domestic as either of the phcebes, there is no doubt that it would 

 be a pest to bee keepers. At present it probably does little harm, 

 except when, as in the case noted, a number of the birds take up 

 their residence in the vicinity of the apiary and make bees a part of 

 their regular diet. 



The food of this bird is interesting, as it represents the food of 

 a typical flycatcher. With the exception of the vegetable matter 

 in 1 stomach, everything it eats could be taken on the wing. Cater- 

 pillars, spiders, and millepeds, although found in the stomachs of 

 most flycatchers, are entirely absent. 



WOOD PEWEE. 



{Myiochanes virens.) 



During the breeding season the wood pewee inhabits the eastern 

 part of the United States, from central Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, 

 and the Dakotas; its breeding range also extends northward into 

 Canada. In winter it retires southward far beyond the boundaries 

 of the United States and returns north rather late in spring, though 

 2 stomachs used hi this investigation were taken at Bloomington, 

 111., on the 5th and 27th, respectively, of March. 



It makes its home both in dense forests and in open groves, and in 

 New England, at least, is a frequenter of orchards to such a degree 

 that it has there received the name of orchard phcebe. Although it 

 does not build in hollow trees, it seems to prefer an orchard of old 

 trees, probably because insects are more abundant there. In thickly 

 s<>n led regions it is quite domestic and sometimes lives and nests in 

 village shade trees and forages about gardens. 



The bird is well known as a fairly typical flycatcher, but it eats 

 some food that can not be taken on the wing. In writing of this 

 bird Maj . Bendire says : 



Mr. George A. Seagle, superintendent of the Wytheville (Va.) Fish Commission 

 Station, states: "This little bird has frequently been seen to catch young trout from 

 the ponds soon after they had been transferred from the hatching house.'' ' 



Catching fish is a singular occupation for a flycatcher, and doubt- 

 less is highly exceptional. Nothing was found in the stomachs 

 examined indicative of any such food habit. Nevertheless in the 

 stomachs of several other flycatchers the bones of tree frogs and 

 lizards have been noted, so that the case does not appear at all 

 improbable. 



i Life Histories of North American Birds, II, p. 289, 1896. 



