182 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Hemiptera (bugs), a small but rather constant element of the food, were found 

 in the stomachs collected every month, and in July reached 11.11 per cent. 

 They were of the families of stinkbugs (Pentatomidae), shield bugs (Scutelleridae), 

 tree hoppers (Membracidae), leaf hoppers (Jassidae), and cicadas. Some scales 

 were found in one stomach. The total for the season is 3.76 per cent. A few 

 insects not included in any of the foregoing categories make up 0.48 per cent of 

 the food. Spiders, with a few miliipeds, amount to 2.22 per cent, the lowest 

 figure for this item of any bird of the genus Hylocichla. Snails, sowbugs, angle- 

 worms, etc. (0.32 per cent), complete the animal food. 



The vegetable food consists mainly of small, soft-skinned fruit, 

 mostly wild varieties. "Wild fruit (19.73 per cent) is eaten regularly 

 and in a goodly quantity in every month after April. Weed seeds 

 and a few miscellaneous items of vegetable food (4.04 per cent) close 

 the account." He lists 50 varieties of fruits, of which only the follow- 

 ing were found in ten or more stomachs: Blackberries or raspberries 

 in 67, wild black cherries in 15, domestic cherries in 29, woodbine in 

 10, and elderberries in 15. 



Miss Stanwood (MS.) emphasizes the spruce bud moth (seeForbush, 

 1929, p. 400) among the food of the young and mentions other moths, 

 all of which are probably eaten by the adults also. The olive-backed 

 thrush evidently procures much of its food among the foliage of the 

 trees, as well as on the ground, and some of it in the air. Ora W. 

 Knight (1908) says: "I have known them frequently to catch moths, 

 flies and mosquitoes while on the wing, and locally applied names of 

 northern Maine are Mosquito Thrush or Flycatching Thrush." 



E. W. Jameson, Jr., has sent me the following note from Buffalo, 

 N. Y.: "On September 20, 1942, at 10:30 a. m., I came upon a flock 

 of 15 or 20 olive-backed thrushes feeding in the top of a 30-foot wild 

 black cherry (Prunus serotina). The birds were in constant motion, 

 flying back and forth between nearby black oaks and butternuts. 

 When a bird had picked off a cherry, it manipulated it in its bill, so 

 as to strip it of the fleshy part which it ate; and then it let the stone 

 fall to the ground. In this way the thrushes were making a great 

 supply of food available to a host of small mammals that lived below. 

 A chipmunk trapped nearby had three fresh stones in its pouches, and 

 pine mice, deer mice, and short-tailed shrews as well, probably utilized 

 this source of supply." 



Behavior. The behavior of the olive-backed thrush is similar to that 

 of its western relative, though it is more given to frequenting the 

 tree tops, especially on migrations. It is a close sitter on its nest 

 but otherwise shy and retiring. Amos W. Butler (1898) gives his 

 impression of the migrants, as he saw them in Indiana: "When 

 surprised they fly upon the lower branches of a tree or bush, usually 

 getting behind a limb or a tree trunk out of view, sometimes simply 

 turning the back to the intruder and then sitting motionless. Often 



