364 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tities, as are also spiders, myriapods, crawfisli, snails, and angleworms. 

 ''Bones of lizards, salamanders, and tree frogs (in all, 0.92 percent) 

 were found in 11 stomachs." He gives the thrasher credit for destroy- 

 ing only 2.43 percent of gi-asshoppers and crickets for the year, with a 

 maximum of 8.5 percent in September, whereas Dr. Gabrielson (1912) 

 says that, at the time of his study in Iowa, 20 percent of the food of old 

 and 3^oung thrashers consisted of grasshoppers. 



Of the vegetable food. Professor Beal (1916) writes : 



The vegetable food of this bird is nearly equally divided between fruit and 

 a number of other substances, of which mast is the most prominent. Wild fruit, 

 the largest item in the vegetable portion (19.94 percent), was eaten every month 

 in varying quantities, the month of maximum consumption (45.69 percent) be- 

 ing September ; January and February, with dried-up fruit from the last summer's 

 crop, stand next. Altogether about 30 species of wild fruits or berries were 

 identified in the stomachs. Those most eaten are blueberries, huckleberries, 

 hoUy berries, elderberries, pokeberries, hackberries, Virginia creeper, and sour 

 gum. Some seeds not properly classified as "fruit" were found, as bayberry, su- 

 mac — including some of the poisonous species — pine, and sweet gum. 



Domestic fruit, or what was called such, was found in nine months, from 

 April to the end of the year, most of it (53.19 percent) in July. Raspberries 

 or blackberries, currants, grapes, cherries, and strawberries were positively 

 identified by their seeds, but as all of these grow wild, it is probable that much 

 that is conventionally termed domestic fruit is really from uncultivated plants. 

 The aggregate for the year is 12.42 percent. 



Mast, principally acorns, was estimated at 23.72 percent for the 

 year, and grain only 2.57 percent. "The grain w^as nearly all corn, 

 with a little wheat, but from the season in which it was taken most 

 of it evidently Avas waste." The thrasher has been accused of pulling 

 up planted corn, but this is probably local and restricted to a few 

 individual birds. 



W. L. McAtee (1926a) mentions some additional insects, eaten by 

 the thrasher, that are injurious to wood lots, such as nut weevils, the 

 wild cherry-leaf weevil {Epicaerus i'mbri€atus) , oak weevil {Eupsalis 

 minuta), and the yellow-necked caterpillar {Datana mmistra) ; and, 

 also to the above lists, he adds the Japanese beetle, clover-root weevil, 

 billbugs, and the chinch bug, as of more interest to the agriculturalist. 



The brown thrasher spends most of its time on or near the ground 

 and obtains the greater part of its food there. One may often be 

 seen foraging among the fallen leaves on the ground under trees or 

 shrubs, or in more open spaces. It apparently seldom scratches for 

 its food, as do the fox sparrow and the towhee, but uses its long, strong 

 bill much as a haymaker uses a pitchfork in spreading hay; thus, 

 with powerful sidewise strokes, it sends the leaves flying in all direc- 

 tions, and then stops to pick up what desirable morsels it finds beneath 

 them. In this way it works diligently over considerable ground, oc- 

 casionally picking up a leaf to cast it aside but more often pitching 

 them away with its closed bill. Some writers have suggested that 



