MOCKING BIRD (Mimus polyglottos) 
Length, 1o inches. Most easily distinguished 
from the similarly colored loggerhead shrike 
(see p. 679) by the absence of a conspicuous 
black stripe through the eye. 
Range: Resident from southern Mexico 
north to California, Wyoming, Iowa, Ohio, and 
Maryland; casual farther north. 
Habits and economic status: Because of its 
incomparable medleys and imitative powers, 
the mocking bird is the most renowned singer 
of the Western Hemisphere. Even in confine- 
ment it is a masterly performer, and formerly 
thousands were trapped and sold for cage 
birds; but this reprehensible practice has been 
largely stopped by protective laws. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that the mocking bird 
should receive protection principally because 
of its ability as a songster and its preference 
for the vicinity of dwellings. Its place in the 
affections of the South is similar to that occu- 
pied by the robin in the North. It is well that 
this is true, for the bird appears not to earn 
protection from a strictly economic stand- 
point. About half of its diet consists of fruit, 
and many cultivated varieties are attacked, 
such as oranges, grapes, figs, strawberries, 
blackberries, and raspberries, Somewhat less 
than a fourth of the food is animal matter, 
and grasshoppers are the largest single ele- 
ment. The bird is fond of cotton worms, and 
is known to feed also on the chinch-bug, rice 
weevil, and bollworm. 
Rt 
BROWN THRASHER (Toxostoma rufum) 
Length, about 11 inches. Brownish red 
above, heavily streaked with black below. 
Range: Breeds from the Gulf States to 
southern Canada and west to Colorado, Wyo- 
ming, and Montana; winters in the southern 
half of the eastern United States. 
Habits and economic status: The brown 
thrasher is more retiring than either the mock- 
ing bird or catbird, but like them is a splendid 
singer. Not infrequently indeed its song is 
taken for that of its more famed cousin, the 
mocking bird. It is partial to thickets and gets 
much of its food from the ground. Its search 
for this is usually accompanied by much 
scratching and scattering of leaves; whence its 
common name. Its call note is a sharp sound 
like the smacking of lips, which is useful in 
identifying this long-tailed, thicket-haunting 
bird, which does not much relish close scrutiny, 
The brown thrasher is not so fond of fruit as 
the catbird and mocker, but devours a much 
larger percentage of animal food. Beetles 
form one-half of the animal food, grasshop- 
pers and crickets one-fifth, caterpillars, includ- 
ing cutworms, somewhat less than one-fifth, 
and bugs, spiders, and millepeds comprise most 
of the remainder. By its destruction of these 
and other insects, which constitute more than 
60 per cent of its food, the thrasher much 
more than compensates for that portion (about 
one-tenth) of its diet derived from cultivated 
crops. 
Photograph by L. W. Brownell 
MOTHER IS TAKING NO CHANCES OF LETTING HER LITTLE ONE SPILL ON ITS CLEAN 
DRESS: A BROWN THRASHER FEEDING ITS YOUNG 
