332 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in consequence a large increase in the number of birds, but no cor- 

 responding gain in the supply of native fruits upon which they are 

 accustomed to feed. Under these circumstances, what is more natural 

 than for the birds to turn to cultivated fruits for their food ? Culti- 

 vated fruits can be protected by planting the wild species, which are 

 preferred by the birds. For example, the Russian mulberry is pre- 

 ferred to all varieties of cutivated fruits, and the planting of a number 

 of these trees will solve the problem of devastation by the catbird and 

 at the same time preserve this bird, which at certain seasons is a use- 

 ful destroyer of insects. That the catbirds are attracted by wild berries 

 and fruits is shown by the experience of Geoffrey Gill (1936a) , who by 

 planting Scotch pine for cover and wild blackberry canes and other 

 berry-bearing shrubs for food at his banding station in Huntington, 

 Long Island, increased the number of catbirds from 72 individuals in 

 1931 to 183 in 1935. 



In New England few complaints are ever lodged against the cat- 

 bird. For example, F. E. L. Beal, of Lunenburg, Mass., says: "On 

 my farm in Massachusetts I have raised strawberries, blackberries, and 

 raspberries by the acre, with grapes, pears, and apples in abundance, 

 and although the farm was nearly surrounded by woods and was 

 adjacent to a swamp where the catbirds and thrashers abounded, I 

 never knew one of them to touch a single fruit, though perhaps they 

 have taken a few. I thought no more of accusing the catbirds or 

 robins of fruit stealing than I would the swallows in the barn." 



Animal, food : The damage done by the catbird in its depredations 

 on cultivated fruits is compensated for by the injurious insects eaten 

 at other seasons of the year. The animal food contained in the 

 stomachs of 645 catbirds as reported by F. E. L. Beal (1897) constitutes 

 44 percent of the entire contents. The animal food is chiefly insects, 

 most of which are serious pests to crops. Ants, beetles, caterpillars, 

 and grasshoppers make up three-fourths of the animal food, the re- 

 mainder consisting of miscellaneous insects and spiders. In the 

 examination of 192 stomachs of the catbird C. C. Purdum (1902) found 

 that ants constituted 10 percent of the entire food, beetles 24 percent, 

 caterpillars 5 percent, grasshoppers 4 percent, bugs 2 percent, spiders 

 and thousandlegs 4 percent, and miscellaneous animal food 5 percent. 

 According to S. D. Judd (1895) , in May when the catbird arrives from 

 the South two-thirds of its food is animal matter made up chiefly of 

 ants, thousandlegs. May beetles, predaceous ground beetles, and cater- 

 pillars. For the first part of June the May ratio of the animal to 

 vegetable matter is sustained, but during the latter part of the month 

 the proportion of vegetable food increases. Early in the season the 

 catbirds eat few grasshoppers and crickets, but by the end of June these 

 insects constitute 10 percent of their food. Five catbirds examined in 

 June contained an average of 30 grasshoppers each. After June the 



