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The Bush-Tit 
of the Bush-tit and its relation to the fruit-industry on the Pacific Coast. 
Three hundred and fifty-three stomachs of Bush-tits were examined. They 
were collected during every month of the year, the greater number being 
taken during the spring and summer. The fact that less than one per 
cent, of the food of the Bush-tit consists of fruit, and that more than 
four-fifths of its diet consists of insects and spiders, nearly all of which 
are harmful, shows that the bird is a very valuable resident of any fruit- 
growing or farming district. According to Professor Beal, the largest 
item in the insectean portion of the Bush-tit’s food consists of bark-lice, 
or scale-insects. 
The San Jose scale is one of the most pernicious and destructive 
pests to the fruit-growing industry on the Pacific 
Destroying Coast. As this scale is very minute, it is difficult to 
Scale-Insects identify it positively after it has been eaten by the 
birds and is mixed with the other food in the stomach. Some species, 
such as the olive-scale, are larger and more easily identified. Out of the 
total of 353 stomachs examined, 138 held scales, and several stomachs 
were entirely filled with them, so that it is certain that the Bush-tit 
devotes a large part of its time to destroying scale-insects. Professor 
Beal examined one brood of eight nestlings about ten days old, taken 
along a stream that bordered a neglected orchard. The stomach of 
every one of these young birds contained larvae of the codling-moth. 
The parent Bush-tits hunted through the old orchard, and did much to 
keep down the horde of insects that thrived and lived there. This is the 
Bush-tit’s life-work. 
MAKING FRIENDS WITH A BUSH-TIT FAMILY 
Photographed by H. T. Bohlman 
Classification and Distribution 
The Bush-tit belongs to the Order Passeres, Suborder Oscines, and Family 
Paridce. Its scientific name is Psaltriparus minimus. It is to be found all along 
the Pacific Coast from southern British Columbia to northern Mexico. Three sub- 
species are recognized : P. minimus minimus, the typical species prevalent near 
the coast ; P. m. calif ornicus, of the mountainous interior ; and P. m. grindcc of 
Lower California. 
This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National Association of 
Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Lists given on request. 
