AUTUMN FOOD OF THE MYRTLE WARBLER 
I 23 
No. 5. 
Per cent. 
■6 bayberries 54 
[ hvmenopterous fly (Apanteles) 1 
1 beetle ( Aphodius inquinatus) 9 
1 house fly (Mi t sea domestical ) 10 
1 cadd ice-fly iS 
Material undetermined 8 
100 
Seven specimens were taken at Durham, 2 p. m., October 10, 1899, in a 
pasture in which there was a small patch of bayberries interspersed with 
barberry bushes and garget plants. The warblers were coming and going 
so continuously that it was impossible to estimate their numbers. In the 
branches of this miniature forest, covering perhaps three or four square 
rods, there were always a dozen or more of the birds, while there was 
scarcely a moment when there was not at least one flitting from shrub to 
shrub. Apparently the birds were feeding exclusively upon the bayberries. 
The examination of the stomach contents of these birds showed a large 
preponderance of bayberries in the diet. The first had eaten nine of these 
berries, forming 93 per cent, of the total food, the remaining 7 per cent, 
consisting of undetermined insects. The stomach of the second contained 
so little that one bayberry seed was estimated to make 56 per cent, of the 
contents, and undetermined insects, chiefly beetles, 44 per cent. The third 
had taken seven bayberries, 72 per cent., a small leaf-beetle ( Oedionychis 
limbalis), 2 per cent., other beetles, 16 per cent., and undetermined insects, 
10 per cent. The fourth had eaten six bayberries, 65 per cent., one larva, 
apparently Lepidopterous, 15 per cent., two leaf -beetles ( Chrysomelidae ), 
9 percent., and undetermined materials, 11 per cent. There was little in 
the fifth : two bayberry seeds formed 98 per cent, and remains of spiders 
and insects the rest. Similarly two bayberries formed 95 per cent, of the 
contents of the sixth specimen, the rest consisting of two orthopterous eggs, 
a leaf-hopper (Jassidae), a tiny bug ( Tingitidae ), and remnants of a spider 
and a fly. In No. 7, two bayberry seeds formed 90 per cent, of the con- 
tents, the remaining 10 per cent, consisting of fragments of beetles and 
other insects. 
At 4:30 p. m., October 10, four specimens were taken in a rocky pasture 
at Durham. The examination of their food showed the following results : 
No. 1. 
Per cent. 
3 bayberries 44 
3 beetles ( Aphodius inquinatus) 22 
1 fly \Muscidae) 1 1 
Insects undetermined 19 
Material undetermined 4 
100 
