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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



treats, but berry patches and ornamental 

 shrubbery are not disdained. Hence the 

 bird is a familiar dooryard visitor. The 

 bird has a fine song, unfortunately 

 marred by occasional cat calls. With 

 habits similar to those of the mocking 

 bird and a song almost as varied, the 

 catbird has never secured a similar place 

 in popular favor. Half of its food con- 

 sists of fruit, and the cultivated crops 

 most often injured are cherries, straw- 

 berries, raspberries and blackberries. 

 Beetles, ants, crickets and grasshoppers 

 are the most important element of Its 

 animal food. The bird is known to at- 

 tack a few pests, as cutworms, leaf bee- 

 tles, clover-root curculio, and the peri- 

 odical cicada, but the good it does in this 

 way probably does not pay for the fruit 

 it steals. The extent to which it should 

 be protected may perhaps be left to the 

 individual cultivator; that is, it should 

 be made lawful to destroy catbirds that 

 are doing manifest damage to crops. 



Mocking Bird 



Mimus polyglottos 



Length, 10 inches. Most easily dis- 

 tinguished from the similarly colored 

 loggerhead shrike by the absence of a 

 conspicuous black stripe through the eye. 



Ran^e 



Resident from Southern Mexico north 

 to California, Wyoming, Iowa, Ohio and 

 Maryland; casual farther north. 



Habits and Economic Status 



Because of its incomparable medleys 

 and imitative powers, the mocking bird 

 is the most renowned singer of the West- 

 ern hemisphere. Even in confinement it 

 Is a masterly performer, and formerly 

 thousands were trapped and sold for cage 

 birds, but this reprehensible practice has 

 been largely stopped by protective laws. 

 It is not surprising, therefore, that the 

 mocking bird should receive protection 

 principally because of its ability as a 

 songster and its preference for the vicin- 

 ity of dwellings. Its place in the affec- 

 tions of the South is similar to that occu- 

 pied by the robin in the North. It is 

 well that this is true, for the bird ap- 

 pears not to earn protection from a 



strictly economic standpoint. About halt 

 of its diet consists of fruit, and many 

 cultivated varieties are attacked, such as 

 oranges, grapes, figs, strawberries, black- 

 berries and raspberries. Somewhat less 

 than a fourth of the food is animal mat- 

 ter, and grasshoppers are the largest 

 single element. The bird is fond of cot- 

 ton worms, and is known to feed also on 

 the chinch bug, rice weevil and bollworm. 

 It is unfortunate that it does not feed 

 on injurious insects to an extent suffi- 

 cient to offset its depredations on fruit. 



Myrtle Warbler 



Deyidroica coronata 

 Length, five and one-half inches. The 

 similarly colored Audubon's warbler has 

 a yellow throat instead of a white one. 



Range 



Breeds throughout most of the for- 

 ested area of Canada and south to Minne- 

 sota, Michigan, New York and Massachu- 

 setts; winters in the southern two-thirds 

 of the United States and south to 

 Panama. 



Habits and Economic Statns 



This member of our beautiful wood 

 warbler family, a family peculiar to 

 America, has the characteristic voice, 

 coloration and habits of its kind. Trim 

 of form and graceful of motion, when 

 seeking food it combines the methods of 

 the wrens, creepers and flycatchers. It 

 breeds only in the northern parts of the 

 Eastern United States, but in migration 

 it occurs in every patch of woodland and 

 is so numerous that it is familiar to 

 every observer. Its place is taken in the 

 West by Audubon's warbler. More than 

 three-fourths of the food of the myrtle 

 warbler consists of insects, practically 

 all of them harmful. It is made up of 

 small beetles, including some weevils, 

 with many ants and wasps. This bird is 

 so small and nimble that it successfully 

 attacks insects too minute to be prey for 

 larger birds. Scales and plant lice form 

 a very considerable part of its diet. Flies 

 are the largest item of food; in fact, only 

 a few flycatchers and swallows eat as 

 many flies as this bird. The vegetable 

 food (22 per cent) is made up of fruit 



