FOOD HABITS OF THE VIEEOS 3 
Table 1. — Percentages of various items in the food of vireos — Continued 
Species 
Cater- 
pillars 
Other 
Lepid- 
optera 
Penta- 
tomi- 
dae 
Other 
Hemi- 
ptera 
Hy- 
men- 
optera 
Dip- 
tera 
Other 
insects 
Arach- 
nida 
11. 75 
2.50 
2.75 
3.00 
10.00 
39.25 
32.43 
2.76 
7.03 
8.33 
10.79 
4.46 
4.59 
4.05 
24.13 
2.17 
1.67 
8.79 
13.96 
11.76 
1.14 
4.34 
35. 40 
4.99 
5.47 
11.24 
5.97 
9.46 
4.44 
1.74 
23.10 
19.35 
15. 50 
7.02 
5.07 
7.36 
4.92 
2.38 
22.49 
9.31 
20.13 
10.29 
6.86 
4.29 
6.56 
2.63 
20.66 
9.83 
8.56 
11.71 
7.23 
4.41 
9.10 
3.59 
12.22 
12.33 
20. 15 
25.73 
6.30 
2.99 
3.21 
2.05 
15.89 
4.74 
9.34 
25.09 
6.44 
.78 
18.77 
2.71 
Other 
animal 
matter 
Black-whiskered vireo ( Vire- 
osylva calidris) .. 
Red-eyed vireo ( Vireosylva 
olivaeea).. ... 
Philadelphia vireo ( Vireo- 
sylva philadclphica).. 
Warbling vireos ( Vireosylva 
gilva, subspp.) 
Yellow-throated vireo (Lani- 
vireo flavifrons) 
Blue-headed vireos (Lani- 
virco soliiarius, subspp.).. 
White-eyed vireos ( Vireo 
griseus, subspp.) 
Hutton vireos ( Vireo huttoni, 
subspp.) 
Beil vireos ( Vireo belli, sub- 
spp.) 
Trace. 
0.06 
.25 
.37 
In the fall, winter, and spring months, when insects are in hiberna- 
tion, the vireos w T hich remain in this country turn to plants for 
part of their food. The vegetable food varies according to the species, 
as shown in Table 1, from 0.7 per cent to 14.72 per cent of the total. 2 
In no case did stomachs of any of the vireos contain a large proportion 
of cultivated fruit, and very few stomachs had any; so that, as fruit 
eaters the vireos are practically harmless. In all species almost the 
entire bulk of the animal food was made up of insects. 
A list of all the items identified in the food of the vireos, showing 
the number of stomachs in which each item was found, is given in 
Tables 2 and 3, beginning on page 28. 
BLACK- WHISKERED VIREO 
Vireosylva calidris barbatula 
The black-whiskered vireo is found in the United States only in the 
southern portions of Florida, where it is fairly common in the vicinity 
of Key West, and may be found as far north as Anclote Keys. Un- 
fortunately, only four stomachs were available for examination, 
collected on Anclote Key, May 21 and 22, and at Seven Oaks, June 7. 
Of the entire food, 87.5 per cent was of animal origin. By far the 
largest single item was spiders, 39.25 per cent of the whole; in one 
stomach were the remains of 10 individuals of one kind (TetragnatTia) . 
Caterpillars and eggs of some moth or butterfly made up 14.25 per 
cent of the food. In one stomach were 10 small earwigs (Forficulidae) , 
which represented about 10 per cent of the animal food. Miscel- 
laneous beetles, including weevils from one stomach, made up 18.25 
Eer cent, and the remaining 5.75 per cent was composed of wasps or 
ees and assassin bugs (Reduviidae) . 
The vegetable food, 12.5 per cent of the total, was composed of 
fruit of barberry (Berberis) and of ragweed (Ambrosia), found in 
three of the four stomachs. 
2 The figures available show no vegetable food for the gray vireo; but this is probably not trustworthy, 
because of the very small number of stomachs representing the fall months. 
