CATBIRD 7 



forgotten, and they are at once doomed. Ordi- 

 narily the Catbirds take such a small fraction of 

 the growing fruit that we should be glad to share 

 with them, and even when they take more, a third 

 of their diet for the year is still made up of inju- 

 rious insects. Putting aside all sentiment, how- 

 ever, as a simple matter of economics it is bad 

 policy to destroy any bird, except as a last resort. 

 As has been said by Mr. Judd, one of the govern- 

 ment examiners of their food, " by killing the 

 birds their services as insect-destroyers would be 

 lost, so the problem is to keep both the birds and 

 the fruit." The study of this problem has led 

 to a most important discovery, that some birds, 

 the Catbird among the number, actually prefer 

 wild fruit to cultivated. Most of the complaints 

 of depredations come from parts of the country 

 where there is little wild fruit. From this it will 

 be seen that by planting berry-bearing bushes 

 and trees it may be possible to prevent losses to 

 cultivated fruits, and at the same time attract 

 more birds, and so secure their much-needed help 

 in destroying insect pests. A slight idea of the 

 good the Catbird does in destroying pests may 

 be had from the fact that 30 grasshoppers have 

 been found in each of 5 Catbird stomachs, while 

 one third of the bird's food is made up of in- 

 sects. Experiments have shown that he prefers 

 the red mulberry to cherries and strawberries ; 

 and stomach examinations show that he eats twice 



