FOOD OF WEST VIBGINIA BIKDS 



Thrushes two shades of brown are to be noted. One is a deep, rich, 

 russet brown while the other is a far duller olive brown. The Wood 

 Thrush has the brighter shade of brown on its head and the duller 

 shade on its lower back and tail; the Hermit Thrush is exactly the 

 reverse in color arrangement having the brighter shade on its tail; 

 the Veery has the russet brown, or brighter shade over its entire upper 

 parts, while the Olive-backed Thrush, as its name indicates, is char- 

 acterized by an olive-green back.- There are other differences, but the 

 one just pointed will help greatly in the identification of the species. 

 Of the four the Wood Thrush is most common in nearly all sections 

 of the State. As a vocalist it has few, if any, superiors. I shall never 

 forget my experience with these birds in certain localities in interior 

 West Virginia. In the evening, early morning and on cloudy days these 

 birds sing such songs as one can never forget. The Veery is highly 

 accomplished as a songster and makes wild, sweet music in our mountain 

 woodlands where this species may be found in the summer time. In 

 most sections of the State the Veery occurs only as a migrant. The 

 Olive-backed Thrush sings a very strange song, and few have been able 

 to hear it in the medley of song during the migration days of late spring 

 when this species passes northward or on toward the higher Alleghenies 

 where it occasionally nests. I have seen two nests of this obscure species 

 in West Virginia. One was on the top of Spruce Knob in Pendleton 

 County and the other was on Shaver's Mountain in Randolph. Altogether 

 the Olive-back, though very common in migration season, is a stranger 

 to most of us. The remaining member of this quartet of Thrushes is, 

 by some, claimed to be the most musical of all. We have the Hermit 

 Thrush only as a migrant or rare winter visitor. A few times I have 

 found this species in mid-winter, but usually see it only in the latter 

 days of March or up to the middle of April, when it passes quietly north- 

 ward, stopping for a few days in our leafless woods to gather a few 

 early insects. 



Their Food. 



Some members of the family are very important economically. All 

 do some service, though two or three of them are of no very great 

 value except from an esthetic standpoint The food of the Thrushes 

 consists almost entirely of insects and fruit. Some of the species, the 

 Robin and Wood Thrush, for instance, are particularly fond of certain 

 kinds of fruit and, at times, become quite destructive to valuable varieties. 

 However, they more than atone for all the harm done by the great 

 number of insects destroyed. The four brown Thrushes, the Wood 

 Thrush, Olive-backed Thrush, Hermit Thrush and Veery, are distinc- 

 tively birds of the forest. All excepting the first, the Wood Thrush, 

 spend practically all their time in the deep forests and there they gather 

 their food. The Wood Thrush is, for the most part, a forest-loving 

 species and is usually just as wild as the others. So -it may be said 

 that these four species gather their food in the woods and are of value 

 in their destruction of insects that feed on forest vegetation. They, of 

 course, destroy some wild fruits and occasionally come out of the forest 



