56 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



of the year. Two specimens of worker honey-bees (Apis mellifera) 

 were found in one stomach. None of the other Hymenoptera was of 

 specially useful species. 



Caterpillars, cocoons, and moths amount to a little more than 8 per- 

 cent of the food, and the greater number were eaten during the win- 

 ter months. It is probable that they were hibernating and were 

 raked out from under dead leaves or other rubbish. A few bugs, 

 flies, grasshoppers, and spiders make up the rest of the animal food — 

 about 6 percent. Spiders and myriapods amount to a little more than 

 (') percent. 



Vegetable food. — The vegetable food may be divided into three 

 parts: Fruit, poison-oak seeds, and miscellaneous vegetable matter. 

 Fruit represents nearly 18 percent, but it probably is not of much 

 value. Several stomachs contained pulp that could not be identified 

 with certainty, and might have been that of some cultivated variety. 

 Seeds of Rubus fruits (blackberries or raspberries) were found in 12 

 stomachs out of the 82. These, however, are as likely to have been 

 wild as cultivated. Elderberry seeds were discovered in 10 stomachs, 

 Cascara, or coffee berries {Rhamnus calif orniciis) ,m 5, and manzan- 

 ita berries in 1. The seed of poison oak {Rhus diversiloha, PI. II, 

 fig. 9), and a few of the nonpoisonous species of Rhus were eaten to 

 the extent of 14 percent of the food. They were not found in many 

 stomachs, but appear to be eaten in considerable quantities when 

 eaten at all. The thraslier must be added to the list of birds that 

 assist in the dissemination of the seeds of this noxious plant. 



The miscellaneous part of the vegetable food amounts to over 26 

 percent, and is made up of mast, weed seed, galls, and rubbish. The 

 mast was not further identifiable. Most of the seeds were so broken 

 and ground up that only a few species were identified. Two stom- 

 achs contained remains of grain— wheat in one and corn in the other. 

 Leaf galls were found in several stomachs, and rubbish in quite a 

 number, though here again it is difficult to draw the line between food 

 proper and stuff that is accidentally picked up with it. 



SUMMARY, 



Although the thrashers eat some fruit, most of it is wild and of no 

 value. Moreover, the bird's habits are such as to preclude the like- 

 lihood that it will ever become a resident of orchards. Grain evi- 

 dently is not a favorite food, and if it were it is doubtful if the bird 

 would leave its chosen haunts for the sake of procuring it. It is not 

 probable that the California thrasher will ever become of special 

 economic interest unless under very exceptional circumstances. In 

 the meantime it performs its part in the great work of reducing the 

 vast numbers of insects. 



