96 rhe Food of Birds. 



specialist, except where determination was evidently im- 

 possible.* 



These memoranda were afterwards classified and the 

 data arranged in tabular form, so as to give a complete 

 recapitulation and summary of the food of each species for 

 each month. The tables thus constructed have furnished 

 the basis for the discussion of the food of the species ; and 

 a similar tabular summary of the food of the family has 

 been used in a similar way. Thus every fact observed 

 appears in the final conclusion, and receives, there, its due 

 weight. 



Family TURDIDiE. The Thrushes, f 



This family consists, in Illinois, of nine species of birds; 

 the robin, the catbird, the brown thrush, the wood thrush, 

 the hermit thrush, Swainson's thrush, the Alice thrush, the 

 mocking-bird and Wilson's thrush or the Veery. The first 

 four of these stay with us in this latitude during the sum- 

 mer ; the others emigrate beyond our borders, except the 

 mocking-bird, and that only reaches the southern third of 

 the state in any considerable numbers. I have now care- 

 fully studied the food of three hundred and fifteen speci- 

 mens of this family, shot in various parts of Illinois, and 

 in all months from February to October. 



TURDUS MIGRATORIUS, L. ThE RoBIN. 



This bird, as familiar to every one as the domestic cat, 

 is the most abundant of the thrushes, and plays so large a 

 part in the economy of the farm and garden as to make 

 the question of its food one of unusual importance. The 

 species ranges from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from 

 the Mexican plateau to the Arctic circle, at home in all 

 the latitudes and longitudes of this vast and varied coun- 

 try. I cannot, of course, attempt to determine, at pres- 

 ent, the food of the species throughout this immense area, 



*For assistance of this sort, I am indebted above ail others to Prof. C. 

 V. Riley, Chief of the U. S. Entomological Commission at Washington, 

 D. C. I have called upon him especially foi the identification of larvae, 

 and my drafts have never been dishonored. 



tThe general reader is referred to the "recapitulations" and the dis- 

 cussions of the "economic relations" of each species for the most im- 

 portant facts of these papers. 



