WESTERN WOOD PEWEE. 49 



Summary. — The one point most open for criticism in the food of 

 the wood pewee is that it eats too many parasitic Hymenoptera. 

 There is no doubt that all birds which prey upon Hymenoptera at all 

 destroy some of the useful species, but the proportion in the food of 

 this bird is greater than in other birds whose food has been investi- 

 gated. As these insects are for the most part smaller than the more 

 common wasps and bees, it would seem natural that they should be 

 preyed upon most by the smaller flycatchers, which very likely 

 accounts for the fact that the wood pewee eats more of them than 

 the kingbirds. But even so the bird does far more good than harm. 

 The loss of the useful Hymenoptera can be condoned when it is 

 remembered that with them the bird takes so many harmful or 



annoying species. 



WESTERN WOOD PEWEE. 



(Myiochanes richardsoni.) 



During the breeding season the western wood pewee ranges over 

 the western portion of the United States from the Pacific coast east- 

 ward as far as the western part of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and the 

 Dakotas, and north to Alaska. In its fall migration it passes entirely 

 beyond the southern boundary of the United States. The bird is 

 seldom found in the forest, but rather on the edge of woods and in 

 groves and open park country. Since the introduction of fruit 

 growing it has taken kindly to orchards and gardens, and frequently 

 builds its nest in fruit trees. Like its eastern relative, virens, it 

 builds in the open upon the branch of a tree, instead of in a hollow 

 limb or under some overhanging projection, as do so many other 

 flycatchers. Like virens it prefers an orchard or grove where insects 

 abound and the trees offer a number of dead twigs to serve as look- 

 outs from which to sally forth to catch insects. 



The writer once observed a pewee flying forth for insects from one 

 of these perches, and noted the number caught in three minutes. In 

 the first minute 7 were taken, in the second 5, and in the third 6, or 

 18 in three minutes. These observations were made at 10 a. m., 

 when the air was warm and many insects were on the wing. At 9 

 a. m. the next day the same perch was again watched, and 17 captures 

 were noted in 8 minutes. This morning was much cooler than the 

 previous one and fewer insects were abroad. The mean of these two 

 observations is 4 insects per minute, and if this rate is kept up for even 

 10 hours a day, the total is 2,400 insects. It seems hardly possible 

 that one bird can eat so many unless they are very small, but this bird 

 is rarely seen when it is not hunting. When there are young in the 

 nest to feed, the havoc among the insects of that immediate vicinity 

 must be something enormous. 



The western wood pewee remains on its northern range only about 

 six months in the year, but fortunately that is the season when insects 



