UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



SZfr&JTU 



BULLETIN No. 280 



Contribution from the Bureau of Biological Survey 

 HENRY W. HENSHAW, Chief 





Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



September 27, 1915 



FOOD HABITS OF THE THRUSHES OF THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



By F. E. L. Beal, Assistant Biologist. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Introduction 1 



Townsend's solitaire 3 



Wood thrush 5 



Veery and willow thrust 9 



Page. 

 Gray-cheeked and Bicknell's thrushes. 11 



Olive - backed and russet - backed 



thrushes 13 



Hermit thrushes 18 



INTRODUCTION. 



North American thrushes (Turdidse) constitute a small but inter- 

 esting group of birds, most of which are of retiring habits but 

 noted as songsters. They consist of the birds commonly known as 

 thrushes, robins, bluebirds, Townsend's solitaire, and the wheatears. 

 The red- winged thrush of Europe (Turdus musicus) is accidental 

 in Greenland, and the wheatears (Saxicola osnanthe subspp.) are 

 rarely found in the Western Hemisphere except in Arctic America. 

 Within the limits of the United States are 11 species of thrushes, of 

 which the following 6 are discussed in this bulletin: Townsend's 

 solitaire (Myadestes townsendi) , the wood thrush (Hylocichla muste- 

 lina), the veery and willow thrush (Hylocichla fuscescens subspp.). 

 the gray-cheeked and Bicknell's thrushes (Hylocichla alicice subspp.), 

 the olive-backed and russet-backed thrushes (Hylocichla ustulata 

 subspp.), and the hermit thrushes (Hylocichla guttata subspp.). An 

 account of the food habits of the 5 species of robins and bluebirds 

 appeared in Department Bulletin No. 171. 



As a group thrushes are plainly colored and seem to be especially 

 adapted to thickly settled rural districts, as the shyest of them, with 



Note. — This bulletin treats of the economic relations and value to agriculture of the 

 thrushes of the United States other than robins and bluebirds. These two forms were 

 discussed in Department Bulletin No. 171, issued February 5, 1915. 

 98551°— Bull. 280—15 1 



