. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. 24 Farmers' Bulletin 630. insects, including honeybees, and which are known to commit In this way extensive depredations. It is thus evident that the kingbird by destroying these flies actually does good work for the apiarist. The 26 robber flies found in the stomachs may be considered more than an equivalent for the 8 worker honey- bees already mentioned. A few caterpillars are eaten, mostly belonging to the group commonly known as cutworms, all the species of which are harmful. About 11 per cent of the food consists of small native fruits, comprising
. [Collected reprints, 1895-1916. Birds. 24 Farmers' Bulletin 630. insects, including honeybees, and which are known to commit In this way extensive depredations. It is thus evident that the kingbird by destroying these flies actually does good work for the apiarist. The 26 robber flies found in the stomachs may be considered more than an equivalent for the 8 worker honey- bees already mentioned. A few caterpillars are eaten, mostly belonging to the group commonly known as cutworms, all the species of which are harmful. About 11 per cent of the food consists of small native fruits, comprising some 30 common species of the roadsides and thickets, as dogwood berries, elder- berries, and wild grapes. The kingbird is not reported as eating cultivated fruit to an injurious extent, and it is very doubtful if this is ever the case. In the Western States the Arkansas kingbird" is not so domestic in its habits as its eastern relative, preferring to live among scattering oaks on lonely hill- sides, rather than in orchards about ranch buildings. The work it does, how- ever, in the destruction of noxious insects fully equals that of any member of its family. Like other flycatchers, it subsists mostly upon insects taken In midair, though it eats a number of grasshoppers, probably taken from the gi-ound. The bulk of its food consists of beetles, bugs, wasps, and wild bees. Like its eastern representative, it has been accused of feeding to an injurious extent upon honeybees. In an examination of 62 stomachs of this species, great care was taken to identify every insect or fragment that had any resem- blance to a honeybee; as a result, 30 honeybees were identified, of which 29 were males or drones and 1 a worker. These were con- tained in four stomachs, and were the sole contents of three; in the fourth they constituted 99 per cent of the food. It is evident that the bee-eating habit is only occasional and accidental, rather than ha- bitual; and "it is also evident that i
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