1110 Report of State Geologist. 



at Ellsworth, March 26; at Dunreith, March 30; Greensburg, April 1, 

 and Sandusky, 0., April 11. They, however, were not noted at La- 

 fayette until April 26, at Laporte until x4.pril 25, or at Chicago until 

 May 2. In 1893 the first one was noted at Brookville, April 20; at 

 Greensburg and Moore's Hill, April 26; Sandusky, 0., May 6; Laporte, 

 May 8. 



In the Wabash Valley they move earlier than in the southeastern 

 portion of the State. The severe storm of May 20 and 21, 1883, de- 

 stroyed many. They begin mating not long after arrival. Prof. W. P. 

 Shannon found a nest begun April 30, 1896, and another pair began 

 their home next day. The latter nest was completed and one egg laid 

 May 13. An egg was laid daily. I have found its nest and eggs May 23 

 (1883), and Prof. Evermann found one in Carroll County, May 21. 

 I found young just able to leave the nest July 24, 1896. After nesting 

 they cease singing, usually towards the end of June or early in July. 

 While with us they vary their diet. At times they eat many insects, 

 and again they live largely upon vegetable food. Of 213 stomachs 

 examined by Mr. Sylvester D. Judd, 44 per cent, of their contents was 

 insects and 56 per cent, vegetable food. Ants, beetles, caterpillars 

 and grasshoppers constituted three-fourths of the animal food, the 

 remainder being made up of bugs, miscellaneous insects and spiders. 

 One-third of the vegetable food consisted of such fruits as are culti- 

 vated, though they may have been of wild growth, strawberries, rasp- 

 berries and blackberries. The rest was mostly wild fruits, including 

 cherries, dogwood, sour gum, elderberries, greenbrier, spice berries. 

 black alder, sumac and poison ivy (Year Book U. S. Dept. of Agr.. 

 1895, pp. 406-411). The Catbird, while it eats much fruit, does much 

 good. The fruit season is not long, while the insect crop is abundant 

 throughout all its stay with us. (Also see Forbes' Bulletin No. 3, 111. 

 State Mus. of N. H., pp. 107-118; King, Geol. of Wis., L, p. 477.) 

 After the song season is past, attention is not drawn so much to this 

 inhabitant of tangled thickets, which grow more rank and impene- 

 trable to man, yet yield an increasing supply of such food as Catbirds 

 like. In September they begin to leave, but still some are found well 

 into October. Brookville, October 4, 1884: Greensburg, October 11. 

 1894. 



