274 



Missouri Agricultural Report. 



would seem to indicate that it had taken up its abode there for the 

 winter. 



Being largely a ground-inhabiting species, the Brown Thrasher 

 naturally feeds upon a great many insects which can be gathered there. 

 They are known to destroy cutworms, cankerworms and caterpillars of 

 many kinds. Grasshoppers, crickets, grubs and beetles are eaten. 

 Dr. Sylvester Judd of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 has given an interesting summary of the contents of 121 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 



Brown Thrasher. 



(After Beal, Farmers' Bulletin No. 5J,, Office of Experiment Stations, V. S. Department 



of Agriculture.) 



picks up stray grains of com dropped in harvesting season. It also 

 frequents public roads and gathers grain scattered in the dust. Lo- 

 cally, and, so far as I have ever been able to learn, sparingly the 

 Thrasher pulls up sprouting com 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 cf the parent birds. 



