40 BIRDS OP CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



Apparently it had been doing the same thing for an hour, perhaps all 

 the morning. These observations were made at 10 a. m., when the 

 air was warm and insects were on the wing. Either the same bird 

 or another was watched the next day at 9 a. m. near the same spot, 

 and 17 captures were noted in eight minutes. This morning was 

 cooler, and fewer insects were abroad than on the previous day. The 

 mean of these two observations is 4 insects per minute. If the bird 

 keeps this up for even ten hours a day, the total is 2,400 insects. It 

 hardly seems possible that one bird could eat so many unless they 

 were very small, but this pewee is rarely seen when it is not actively 

 hunting. When the young are in the nest, the parents must make 

 great havoc with insects if the nestlings are fed at the above rate. 



The pewee remains in California only about six months in the year, 

 but fortunately this is the season when insects are most numerous. 

 One hundred and thirty-seven stomachs, taken in the months from 

 April to September inclusive, were available for examination. 

 Animal matter formed 99.91 percent of the contents and vegetable 

 matter 0.09 percent, or less than one-tenth of 1 percent. The per- 

 centage of animal matter is the highest yet found in the food of any 

 flycatcher. 



Animal food. — Beetles amount to about 5 percent of the food. 

 With the exception of Carabidae, found in 4 stomachs, and Coccinel- 

 lidaB, in 5, all were either harmful or neutral species. 



The following beetles were identified: 



Coctinella 9-notata nevadica. Aphodius vittatus. 



Coccinella californica. Agrilus sp. nov. 



Coctinella transversoguttata. Agriotes sp. 



Hippodamia ambigua. Gastroidea sp. 



Hippodamia convergens. Blapstinus sp. 



Ulster bimaculatus. Ptilinus basalts. 



Saprinus plenus. Baris rubripes. 

 Carpophilus hemipterus. 



Hymenoptera aggregate over 39 percent, and are of wild species — 

 that is, there are no domestic bees among them. They were found 

 in 93 stomachs, and in 14 there was nothing else. Parasitic species 

 were identified in 7 stomachs and ants in only 2 — an unusually small 

 record for ants, which are favorite food with flycatchers. 



Hemiptera, or bugs, are evidently not esteemed as an article of 

 diet by this bird, for they amount to less than 2 percent of the food. 

 None were eaten in April or May, but nearly half the whole number 

 were taken in August. 



Diptera amount to nearly 40 percent, slightly exceeding Hymenop- 

 tera. No other flycatcher has yet been noted whose food contained 

 more Diptera than Hymenoptera; hence the name flycatcher is pecu- 

 liarly applicable to this pewee. Diptera were found in 84 stomachs, 



