BIRDS OF PORTO RICO. 79 



taken in the same manner. Its food also differs from that of the kingbird 

 mainly in its small consumption of Hymenoptera, with a corresponding increase 

 in the destruction of beetles and vertebrates, these differences in diet resulting 

 from differences in habitat. 



Animal food. — Though the mole cricket (Scapteriscus didactylus) was found 

 in only 3 stomachs, it amounts to 3.04 per cent. Other Orthoptera, locusts 

 (Acrididse) in four cases and a cricket in one, make up 2.68 per cent. The 

 largest item in the animal food, 18.47 per cent, is composed of the cane root- 

 boring weevil, present in 29 stomachs. Remains of as many as six were found 

 in a single stomach, though smaller numbers were the rule. One of these 

 weevils forms a comparatively large bulk and usually they are well broken up, 

 apparently before swallowing. The weevil stalk-borer (Metamasius hemipte- 

 rus), another highly injurious species, was eaten three times and amounts to 

 1.53 per cent. Miscellaneous snout-beetles come to 2.4 per cent and were mainly 

 coffee leaf -weevils (Lachnopus spp.). Among miscellaneous beetles (4.06 per 

 cent) diabroticas (Diabrotica graminea) occur three times and a leaf beetle 

 (Cryptocephalus sp. ) twice. Metallic wood-boring beetles, whose larvae live 

 under the bark of decaying trees, were also well represented. Ladybird beetles 

 (1.53 per cent), predacious species, were identified four times. Ill-smelling 

 squash bugs were eaten 11 times and figure as 3.45 per cent, while Homoptera, 

 largely cicadas, make up 2.47 per cent. Two other bugs, predatory species, taken 

 by two birds amount to only 0.88 per cent. Moths were eaten by four birds and 

 caterpillars by four, and combined these comprise 4.17 per cent of the food. 



Though hymenopterous remains were present in 23 stomachs, they amount to 

 only 8.22 per cent. Fragments of bees (2.12 per cent) were- identified in four 

 stomachs, none of them belonging to the domestic species, so that this large 

 flycatcher is vindicated of the charges laid against it by owners of bees. While 

 working around the apiary of Sr. Linares, at Lares, a number of clerigos were 

 taken and their stomachs preserved. They did not come directly into the bee 

 yard, as did the gray kingbirds, but remained in the trees around its border. 

 Swarms of bees were continually passing and repassing, and the flycatchers 

 were seen darting up among them and snapping up unlucky insects time after 

 time. On examining the stomachs of these birds carefully, however, no honey- 

 bees were found, the gizzards being filled with the customary food of the bird. 

 It has been said that the birds do not swallow bees, but work them through the 

 bill to extract the juices of the body and then discard the rest. In extended 

 observations, however, I saw nothing of this, and in the well-known feeding 

 habits of the bird there is nothing to indicate that this is. true. When a bird 

 preys upon the vicious social wasp (Polistes sp.), individuals of which were 

 identified in four stomachs, there is no reason to suppose that it would reject 

 the body of the weaker honeybee because of its sting. 



The little tree toad (Eleutherodactylus sp.) had been eaten by 10 of the 

 petcharies examined and forms 8.81 per cent of the total food for the period 

 under discussion. As this flycatcher perches constantly among the leaves and 

 limbs of living trees, these small batrachians are often seen and devoured. 

 Lizards (10.47 per cent), all anolis, were eaten by 18 birds. In consuming these 

 vertebrates a small amount of harm is done, but this counts for little when the 

 good accomplished in other directions is considered. One bird taken in a man- 

 grove swamp at Mameyes had eaten a fiddler crab (Uca pugnax rapax), and 

 the stomach of another contained bits of mollusk shell. These, with a small 

 quantity of animal matter which could not be determined, amount to 4.73 per 

 cent. 



