BIRDS OF INDIANA. 1113 



There, upon the topmost limb of honey locust, elm, or oak, the male 

 at once begins a serenade. In the early morning and at late afternoon 

 he mounts his favorite perch and sings by the hour. This song period 

 does not last long. After courtships are over they are heard less and 

 less, until in June they become rare and finally cease. I have found 

 their nest containing eggs at Brookville by April 29 (1881), and Prof. 

 Evermann reports one in Carroll County, May 4, 1885. Usually, they 

 build their nest in a bush in a retired place. I knew a pair to occupy 

 a sweetbrier bush at the side of a well-traveled public road year after 

 year. 



May 28, 1897, I saw a nest which was found built on the ground by 

 Mr. C. D. Test, near the site of old Post Ouiatanon, below Lafayette. 

 It was in a rye patch at the foot of a stool of rye, and contained four 

 eggs. He informed me that he and his brother had once before found 

 a nest built on the ground. From there southward in this State I have 

 never heard of a nest being built on the ground. Yet farther north, 

 in the old prairie region, and in Michigan, such nesting sites are not 

 rare. 



Mr. Sylvester D. Judd reports an examination of 121 stomachs of 

 the Brown Thrush showed 36 per cent, of vegetable and 64 per cent, 

 of animal food. The latter was practically all insects. Half of them 

 were beetles and the remainder mostly grasshoppers, caterpillars, bugs 

 and spiders. Eight per cent, of its food was small fruits, such as are 

 cultivated, while of grain, perhaps obtained from scattered kernels, 

 but the trifle of 3 per cent, was found. The Brown Thrasher stands 

 its trial with the judgment "useful bird" written on the records (Year 

 Book II. S. Dept. Agr., 1895, pp. 411-415). (As to food, see also 

 Forbes' Bulletin No. 3, 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., pp. 118-127.) Prof. 

 Forbes found in an orchard infested with canker-worms that this bird 

 made 23 per cent, of its food of those insects (Kept. Mich. Hort. Soc., 

 1891, p. 204). Generally they are reported to have left in September, 

 or early October, but some continue with us until November, and 

 possibly longer. 



The latest records are from Hillsdale, Mich., September 15, 1894; 

 Plymouth, Mich., September 20, 1894; Chicago, October 2, 1895; 

 Lafayette, September 14, 1895, October 8, 1894; Brookville, October 

 25, 1894; Greensburg, November 3, 1894; Warren County, September 

 25, 1897. 



