SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 181 



woodland, cornfield, and garden. Dr. Judd gives a sum- 

 mary of the results of an examination of the stomachs of one 

 hundred and twenty-one of this species ; thirty-six per cent, 

 of the food was vegetable, and sixty-four per cent, was ani- 

 mal, which was practically^ all insects, mostly taken in spring, 

 when no fruit was ripe. Half the insects were beetles, 

 mainly harmful species. The remaining animal food was 

 chiefly grasshoppers, caterpillars, bugs, and spiders. 



The Brown Thrasher more than repays us for the cultivated 

 fruit that it eats by the number of insect pests that it con- 

 sumes earlier in the season. While it eats considerable wild 

 fruit and some that is useful to man, it prolmbly pays for 

 this by destroying many of the disgusting bugs that eat 

 berries. As the Thrasher feeds much on the ground, it 

 destroys many grasshoppers, crickets, white grubs, and May 

 beetles. Professor Forbes states that in Illinois nearlv half 

 the food of this bird consists of waste grain picked from 

 the droppings on the roads. He also asserts that it eats 

 cultivated fruit in less proportion than do other Thrushes. 

 There, as here, June beetles form a considerable per cent, of 

 its food, and it eats both snap beetles and curculios. The 

 Thrasher eats caterpillars, but mainly such species as are 

 found on the ground. It picks up cutworms, cankerworms, 

 and some gipsy moth caterpillars, but is not usually fond of 

 hairy caterpillars. On the whole, it is a bird that should be 

 protected by the farmer. 



Catbird. 



Dunietclla carolinenHs. 



Length . — About nine inclies. 



Adult. — Both upper and under paits dark gray; top of head and tail blaekish; 



under tail coverts chestnut. 

 Xest. — Composed of sticks and twigs, bark and rootlets, placed in a bush or 



vine. 

 Eggs. — Dark, glossy, greenish-blue. 

 Season. — May to October. 



The Catbird is very common in this State. Its voluble 

 manner, cat-like cry, nmsical song, halnts of mimicry, and 

 bi-averj" in defence of its young are all too well known 

 to need description. As an imitator, it is second only to 

 the Mockingbird. I have hesird the cry of the Bob-white or 



