18 



BULLETIN 171, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



to 3.63 per cent for the season, and apparently consisted of apples, 

 primes, etc., left to dry upon the trees. Though no stones were 

 found, some of the pulp appears to be of olives, and any olives con- 

 sumed through the winter would, of course, be a loss to the grower. 

 While the stomachs were not collected in the fruiting season eight 

 species of wild fruit were identified. This comprised 23.21 per cent 

 of the food and was found in every month in which stomachs were 

 taken except April. The maximum amount, 73.67 per cent, is eaten 

 in October when the bird returns from its summer home and wild 

 berries are still on the bushes. Mast was perhaps the most unex- 

 pected food in the stomach of the varied thrush and was made up 

 mostly of acorns. This item first appears in the stomachs taken in 

 November, when it amounts to 76.71 per cent of the food. It decreases 

 to the end of the season, except that none was found in four stomachs 

 taken in February. 



The habit of eating mast has undoubtedly developed from the 

 fact that in the bird's winter residence acorns are abundant, fresh 

 fruit not at all, and insects only in moderate numbers. The aggre- 

 gate for the season is 18.86 per cent. Weed seed, another article of 

 food too dry and hard for most thrushes, is eaten by the varied thrush 

 to a very considerable extent during the four months from December 

 to March. The average for each of those months is 16.78 per cent, 

 but for the whole seven months is only 9.59 per cent. Miscellaneous 

 articles of vegetable diet, such as seeds of sumac, poison oak, and 

 ground up unidentifiable vegetable matter, amount to 17.18 per cent 

 of the food. Rubbish, which completes the account, was found in 

 several stomachs and amounts to 1.68 per cent. 



Following are fruits, seeds, etc., identified, and the number of 

 stomachs in which each was contained: 



Juniper berries (Juniper us sp.) 1 



Wheat (Triticum vulgare) 1 



Amaranth (Amaranthus sp.) 1 



Apple (Pyrus malus) 3 



Blackberry or raspberry (Rubus 



sp.) 1 



Filaree (Erodium sp.) 1 



Pepper berries (Schinus molle) 1 



Poison oak (Rhus diversiloba) 1 



Sumac (Rhus sp.) 1 



Buckthorn (Rhamnus sp.) 1 



Black nightshade (Solarium ni- 

 grum) 1 



California honeysuckle (Lonicera 

 hispidula calif ornica) 2 



Bound-leaved snowberry (Sym- 

 phorocarpos rotundifolia) 1 



Common snowberry (Symphoro- 

 carpos racemosus) 5 



Fruit not further identified 8 



Mast 16 



Seeds unidentified 10 



Summary. — From what is known of the insect food of the varied 

 thrush, it does not appear that the bird is likely to do much mischief 

 by eating useful insects. It takes but few, and these are so well 

 distributed through the different orders and families that appar- 

 ently no one species is unduly preyed upon. Quite a good portion 

 of the animal food consists of creatures of little or no economic 



