The Bulletin. 13 



stomachs of the Brown Thrasher which he has examined. He 

 states that 36 per cent of the food was vegetable and 64 per cent was 

 animal. It eats much wild fruit and occasionally cultivated fruit 

 is attacked. Besides weed seeds of various kinds the bird comes to 

 the borders of the fields and picks up stray grains of corn dropped 

 in harvesting season. It also frequents public roads and gathers 

 grain scattered in the dust. Locally, and, so far as I have ever been 

 able to learn, sparingly the Thrasher pulls up sprouting corn and 

 other grain. One hears very little complaint of this, however, and 

 the bird is regarded of sufficient value to be protected at all times 

 by the law of the State. 



The Thrasher consumes a tremendous amount of food daily. The 

 writer was especially impressed with this fact a few years ago while 

 watching a pair of the birds feed their young in the yard of Mr, 

 Kobert U. Garrett, at Asheville. The nest was in a thorn bush 

 about seven feet from the ground and directly in front of my window, 

 which gave me abundant opportunity for observing the actions of 

 the parent birds. They began feeding their young before 6 o'clock 

 in the morning and continued until about 8 in the evening. Through 

 my field glasses I determined the fact, for the birds often alighted 

 near me, that they sometimes carried two or three insects or worms 

 at once. I watched them for hours' on different days and, keeping 

 careful record, found that one parent averaged a trip to the nest 

 with food every ten minutes and the other bird averaged one every 

 two and one-half minutes. If they did this during the entire four- 

 teen days the young were in the nest, counting that they carried only 

 one article of food each trip, it would mean that the young were 

 fed 6,880 worms and soft-bodied insects before they ever left the 

 nest. Doubtless 50,000 or 75,000 insects were destroyed by that one 

 Thrasher family the summer of 1902. 



Meadow Lark (Sturnella magna). 



Upper plumage brownish, with dark-streaked, pale-edge feathers ; outer tail 

 feathers with much white; a light yellowish line from the bill down the top 

 of the head and a similar stripe over the eye; a dark line behind the eye; 

 yellow below with a large black crescent on breast; sides lighter with pro- 

 longed black spot. Winter plumage : feathers of black more widely margined 

 with brown, giving a suggestion that brown is the prevailing color; the yel- 

 low of the plumage duller; length 10% inches. 



jl a n ^.—Eastern North America; breeds from the Gulf of Mexico to New 

 Brunswick. 



Nest.— Of grasses, usually arched over ; located on the ground, often beneath 

 a bunch of grass or small pine sapling. 



The Meadow Lark or Old-field Lark, or, as it is often called. 

 "Fee Lark," is a familiar acquaintance of virtually every farm 

 boy in the State. Its loud, clear call in the spring is known to 

 all whose business or pleasure takes them to the fields. Its clear. 



