FLYCATCHER FAMILY. 41 



and 20 contained no other food. This would seem to indicate that 

 flies are preferred to other insects. The families Muscidse, Tipulidae, 

 and Asilidse were recognized. 



Caterpillars and moths amount to nearly 5 percent. Though not 

 taken in great numbers, they are eaten regularly through the season. 

 September shows the greatest consumption — over 14 percent. Moths 

 were found in 18 stomachs and caterpillars in 4. One stomach was 

 entirely filled with the remains of moths. 



Sundry insects, amounting to nearly 9 percent, make up the rest 

 of the animal food. Dragonflies were found in 7 stomachs, and 1 

 contained nothing else. Ephemerids were in 4 stomachs, lace-winged 

 flies in 1, spiders in 3, and the so-called jointed spiders in 1. 



The character of the food shows that it is taken on the wing more 

 exclusively than that of any other bird yet examined. Of the crea- 

 tures that do not fly, ants were found in 2 stomachs, caterpillars in 

 4, spiders in 3, and jointed spiders in 1. As some ants fly, these 

 may have been taken in mid-air, but they were too badly broken to 

 determine this point. 



Vegetable food. — Vegetable matter was found in 4 stomachs, but 

 in 3 of these it was mere rubbish. One contained seeds of the elder- 

 berry, the only vegetable food observed. 



SUMMARY. 



The western wood pewee, while often an inhabitant of the orchard, 

 does not deign to taste of its product, if the above record may be 

 assumed to be conclusive. Its diet is composed almost exclusively 

 of insects, and of these a large majority are harmful species. 



WESTERN FLYCATCHER. 



(Empidonax difficilis. ) 



The western flycatcher avoids alike the hot valleys and the high 

 mountains of California during the warmer months, but is more gen- 

 erally distributed in migration. For a nesting site it selects a tree, 

 a crevice among the roots of an overturned stump, a bracket under a 

 porch, a beam under a bridge, or a hole under an overhanging sod on 

 the bank of a stream. It has much the same liking for water as the 

 black phoebe, though even more pronounced. A small stream run- 

 ning through or near an orchard appears to supply ideal conditions 

 for this little flycatcher, as the orchard makes an excellent foraging 

 ground, and if it does not afford a nesting site, the bank of the stream 

 will. The bird is quiet and unobtrusive, and often the first notice 

 one has of its presence is to see it dart from the end of a near-by 

 twig into the air in pursuit of an insect. It seems to be thus engaged 

 all day; in fact, the writer has never seen one of these birds when it 

 was not in search of food. 



