282 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



OSCINES, (SINGERS.) 



Tn tliis order are placed tlie Turdidce, (tbruslies;) SylricoUdce, (warblers;) 

 HirundinidcB, (swallows;) TjomlijcillidcB, (chatterers;) Laniida, (shrikes;) 

 Liotrichidce, (mocking birds, Avreas, &:c. ;) ' Cerlhiada:, (creepers;) Paradee, 

 (titmice;) Ala^Jidce, {larks ;) FringilUdce, {inches, i^^^arrowH, &cc.;) Icteridce, 

 (blackbirds, troopials, &c. ;) aud Corvidce, (crows, jays, &c.) 



The family Turdidce, of which our common robin Turdus migratorius 

 Linu., is a familiar representative, includes all our true thrushes. I'hesc birds 

 are all beneficial, although they occasionally eat the smaller fruits and berries ; 

 their food consists principally of the larvae of insects, which they obtain either 

 on the surface of the ground or just beneath it. I cannot refrain from intro- 

 ducing the following extract from an essay on the utility of birds,* by Wilson 

 Flagg. This gentleman is one of the most careful and intelligent observers of 

 the habits of our birds, and his experience as it is given in this essay is inter- 

 esting and valuable. He writes as follows : 



" One circumstance that attracts frequent attention in the feeding habits of the thrushes is 

 their apparent want of diligence; but this appearance is delusive, for the immense quantity 

 of insects consumed by them could not be obtained without proportional inilustry. The 

 common robin will exemplify the general habit of the thrushes, though he canies their pecu- 

 liarities to an extreme. When he hunts his food he is usually seen hopping listlessly about 

 the field. Sometimes a dozen or more robins may be seen in one field, but they arc always 

 widely separated. Obsei"A'e one of them and you will see him standing still with his bill in- 

 clined upwards and looking about him with seeming unconcern. Soon he makes two or 

 three hojts, and then stands a few more seconds apparently idle. Presently he may be seen 

 pecking vigorously upon the ground, whei^ if you were near enough to see it distiuctlj", you 

 would find that he is pulling out a cut-worm from his retreat, or devouring a nest of insects 

 which are gathered in a cluster. Last summer, (1861,) having been conlined nearly all the 

 season to the house by illness, I had ample opportunity to watch the habits of the few birds 

 that could be seen from my windows. These were chiefly robins, bobolinks, grakles and 

 other blackbirds, as weH as multitudes of spaiTOws. Though a continual warfare was 

 waged against the grakles by the owners of the fields, I saw enough to convince me that 

 they were warring against their own friends and servants. The robins were very numerous 

 and familiar in my neighborhood, (the west end of Somerville and North Cambridge.) One 

 pair had a nest very near my house, aud were rearing a second brood in the mouth of July, 

 when the soil was so greatly parched by drought, that if robiHS lived only upon berries and 

 earth-worms they must have starved to death. I had often seen these birds at a distance 

 pecking vigorously upon the sward, and then drawing out a worm. I knew that there 

 were at this time no earthworms near enough the surface to be within the reach even of the 

 long-billed snipes ; but when the bird was near enough, I could distinctly see, by the form 

 and appendage of the creature, that it was invariably a cut-worm of a large species, and of 

 an olive green color. The female bird was the most industrious. She would carry off one 

 of the grubs as often as once in five minutes, whenever I watched her movements, and very 

 often she would have two in her bill at a time. One day, close under my window, I saw 

 her bear off three cut-worms at once, all of which were taken before my sight in a space of 

 about a rod square. Never did I see at any time an earthworm in the mouth of this bird 

 during this month, nor anything else except cut worms, of which this single pair must have 

 destroyed an incalculable numljer. The old birds probably swallow all the hard insects, and 

 save the larvae exclusively for the young." 



In dismissing the thrushes, I would call attention to a very valuable and 

 interesting paper on the food of the robin, written by Professor Jenks, and 

 published in tlie proceedings of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for 

 lS58-'59. This gentleman is one of our most careful students of ornithology, 

 and his researches are worthy of attention. 



The Sylckolidce, of which the Maryland yellow throat, GeotJdypis triclias, 

 (Cabanis,) and the yellow warbler or summer yellow bird, Dend?'oica cesiiva, 

 are fVimiliar illustrations, are also very beneficial to agriculture. They consti- 

 tute the next line in the Avar against the insects to the fly-catchers. We found 

 those birds to destroy the insects that fly among and from trees and shrubs, 



• Proceedings of the Essex county (Massachusetts) Agricultural Society for 18G1. 



