42 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



ties. The Catbird subsists largely on fruit of which about one- 

 third is taken from cultivated crops. It eats caterpillars, 

 grussho})pers, and crickets, with a small percentage of leaf- 

 eating and click beetles. The volume of these insects destroyed 

 is equal to only one half of that of the cultivated fruit eaten. 



The Brown Thrasher, which is a close relative of the Catbird, 

 is certainly more valuable, as the results of investigations show, 

 as to the fruit it destro3's and the injurious insects. The quan- 

 tity of food taken from cultivated crops amounts to only eleven 

 percent., eight per cent, of which is fruit and the rest grain. 

 The farmer is more than compensated for this loss by the de- 

 struction of an equal bulk of May beetles which if allowed to 

 live would have done much more harm than the Thrasher, and 

 left a numerous progeny for next year. Grasshoppers, crickets, 

 weevils, click and leaf beetles form a large proportion of the 

 food. It destroys twice as many caterpillars as the Catbird. 

 The Brown Thrasher has a fine soft note, especially contrasted 

 with that of the Wood Thrush in the ecstacy with which he 

 pours it forth. The Brown Thrasher is often called the Brown 

 Thrush, but it is not a Thrush properly. The Brown Thrasher 

 and the Catbird belong to the Mocking-bird family. They are 

 certainly characterized by the song that differs very much from 

 the strain of the Thrush. Thoreau speaks of the Wood Thrush 

 as having a song of fine modulation. He gives vent to a beau- 

 tiful strain, and then pauses in order to enjoy it himself perhaps, 

 while the Thrasher pours forth a perfect volume of ecstatic 

 song, and then at the end of the nesting season, a very brief 

 period of song, he seems particularly depressed in spirit and 

 skulks away and hides among the bushes. 



We have a large number of little Warblers that are wholly 

 insectivorous, and do a great deal of good in the orchards, in 

 picking up the tiny insects that infest the buds and plants, the 

 flower buds on fruit trees and all the cultivated plants. These 

 Warblers are called the Myrtle Warblers, and have three or four 

 distinct spots of yellow. They are migrants, coming to us in 

 the spring and in the fall, and last fall I found a large flock of 

 them. We have a large number of them beautifully colored. 



