30 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



be found in the older orchards. The eastern species (M. crinitus), 

 which nests in hollow trees, habitually places the shed skin of a snake 

 in the walls of its nest. The reason for this is not plain, but the writer 

 has never seen or heard of a nest in which the snake skin was lacking. 

 The ash- thro at occasionally does the same thing, but apparently does 

 not consider the snake skin indispensable. Though an orchard bird, 

 it seldom eats any cultivated fruit, but confines its diet largely to 

 insects, most of which are either injurious or neutral. 



In the following investigation of the ash-throat, 80 stomachs were 

 used, collected from April to December inclusive, but only one in 

 each month after July. Animal food amounts to 92 percent and veg- 

 etable to 8 percent for the season. Stomachs taken in April, May, 

 August, October, and November contained no vegetable food what- 

 ever. The one stomach taken in September held 44 percent of elder- 

 berries, which is exceptional. A greater number of stomachs in this 

 month would probably have reduced this percentage considerably. 



Animal food. — Of the animal food, beetles, almost entirely of harm- 

 ful species, amount to 5 percent. The two families most prominent 

 in the food are the longicorns (Cerambycidae) and the metallic wood- 

 borers (Buprestidae), which are the very ones whose larvae are so 

 extensively eaten by woodpeckers. Next to these were the click 

 beetles (Elateridae), that bore into various plants and do much dam- 

 age, and a few weevils or snout beetles (Rhynchophora). A ground 

 beetle (Carabidae) was found in one stomach, and a ladybird (Coc- 

 cinellidae) in another, these being the only useful beetles taken. 



Bees, wasps, and a few ants (Hymenoptera) amount to 27 percent. 

 They are eaten regularly in every month when the bird is on its sum- 

 mer range. Five stomachs were taken in the vicinity of an apiary, 

 but not one of them contained a trace of a honey bee, though one 

 bird had eaten 24 percent of robber flies (Asilidae), which have been 

 known to prey upon bees. 



Bugs (Hemiptera) aggregate about 20 percent of the food of the 

 ash-throat, which is the largest showing for that order of insects yet 

 found in the food of any flycatcher. They were all eaten in the 

 months from May to August inclusive, and form a good percentage 

 in each of those months. They belong to the families of stinkbugs 

 (Pentatomidae), shield bugs (Scutelleridae), leafhoppers (Jassidae), 

 jumping plant lice (Psyllidae), common plant lice (Aphididae), tree 

 hoppers (Membracidae), cicadas (Cicadidae), and assassin bugs (Redu- 

 viidae). The last is a family of predaceous insects which are useful, 

 as they destroy some harmful insects, but all the others are injurious, 

 and some are pests. While many of these are taken upon the wing, 

 probably some are picked from plants. One bird was seen on a mus- 

 tard plant feeding upon the plant lice, which completely infested the 



