150 



THE OOLOGIST. 



dant, they amy easily be protected by 

 planting the Russian Mulberry, which 

 grows luxuriantly, in hen yards and 

 runs, serving the double purpose of 

 affording excellent food for the hens, 

 and attracting the birds from the mar- 

 ket fruit. Buckthorn, wild grape, dog- 

 wood, wild cherries, and elder, are 'ilso 

 much sought for by the catbird and 

 will be taken in preference to the culti- 

 vated fruit wherever it can be procured. 



The catbird arrives from the South, 

 early in May and consequently is 

 obliged to subsist on other than ripe 

 fruit for its vegetable diet. Until the 

 time when the fruits ripen however, 

 the greater part of its diet consists of 

 insects, of which ants, May beetles, 

 thousand legs, prfdaceous ground 

 beetles, and caterpillars, form the bulk. 

 Even at this time however, the bird 

 will consume large quantities of last 

 years smilax, sumach, etc. which have 

 been exposed throughout the winter. 

 During the greater part of June, the 

 same, or nearly the same, conditions 

 pertain, but as the weather becomes 

 warmer and the vegetation increases 

 the vegetable diet increases also. At 

 the beginning of the sea'on, the grass- 

 hoppers and crickets do not form a 

 large article of consumption, but as 

 June advances, they are consumed in 

 great numbers. After the last week of 

 June the number cf these insects con- 

 sumed is insignificant. The same is 

 true of the May beetle consumption, 

 which increases from the 1st to the 20th 

 of June and then rapidly decreases. 



The vegetable diet is greatly in ex- 

 cess after the first of J uly, and from 

 the 1st to the the 25th, the ratio is 4 to 1. 

 During this time the fruit is most abun- 

 dant, and the catbirds erjoy the har- 

 vest to the limit. During this time 

 only about two per cent, of the food 

 consists of caterpillars and beetles. 

 In their winter homes, these birds, 

 while probably preferring fruits and 

 insects, are forced to make many a 



meal from fr zen berries and hiberna- 

 ting insects, which in the spring fol- 

 lowing wou d awaken, to lay countless 

 numbers of eggs which would hatch in- 

 to hungry and voracif^us larvae, cap- 

 able of each day consuming more than 

 their own weight of garden plants. 

 The number of stomachs examined of 

 this bird were one hundred and ninety- 

 two, and were from specimens taken 

 as far north as Maine and as far south 

 as Florida, and covering a p*riod ex- 

 tending from March to December. The 

 examination has shown that of the ani- 

 mal food of the catbird, the beetles and 

 ants form the principal part. Smooth 

 caterpillars, crickets and grasshoppers 

 are next in importance, while centi- 

 pedes, thousand legs, bugs and spiders 

 are not found in such large quantities, 

 but nevertheless are constantly met 

 with. The constant occurence of 

 thousand legs in the stomach of the 

 catbird, leads one to suppose that they 

 are particularly relished, but owing to 

 their abode, living as they do for the 

 most part under stones and other art- 

 icles upon the ground, they are not so 

 easily captured. 



In this and the preceeding paper, no 

 mention has been made to the earth- 

 worms as an article of diet. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, earthworms form a far 

 smaller proportion of the foods of birds 

 than is generally supposed. Even the 

 robin does not use as many as we are 

 prone to believe from so frequently 

 seeing him about ploughed ground etc. 

 where worms are most likely to be 

 abundant. It is a noteworthy feature, 

 that out of the 193 stomachs examined 

 not one contained an earthworm. 



To sum up briefly then the economic 

 status of the catbird, we may say that 

 two-thirds of the food for the entire 

 year is vegetable, and the remaining 

 one-third animal. Of the former, the 

 majority is composed of fruit, wild 

 fruit preferred, but where the cultivat- 

 ed is more easily obtained or exists in 



