CULTIVATED FEUIT. 55 



eared owl here given is of a bird tliat had just made vicarious atonement 

 for depredations on the poultry by the great horned owl. 



Rabbits. — The marsh hawk and other large species prey on rabbits. 

 In the last week of December, 1897, a marsh hawk was shot which had 

 just killed one of unusual size. The crow regularly feeds on young 

 rabbits. On March 27, 1901, several crows that were congregated in 

 some grass land at a point 150 yards behind the house were frightened 

 awa}'. An empty rabbit's nest found on the spot and stains of blood 

 on the broom-sedge told what thej^ had been doing. The rabbit is & 

 nuisance on the farm. It often ruins hotbeds of sweet potatoes, cuts 

 tortuous paths through wheat fields, and nibbles cabbages and turnips. 

 Not more than 20 miles from Marshall Hall rabbits girdled and killed 

 2,000 young pear trees in an orchard of 4,000 within two months. 



The food of the 645 birds examined shows only 1.72 percent of ver- 

 tebrate food. The reason for so small a propoition is the fact that 

 the collection included only 19 birds that could be expected to feed on 

 flesh. 



IV.— FRUIT. 

 CTTLTIVATED VARIETIES. 



Fruit forms with many common birds an important element of 

 food. Of the 645 stomachs of native birds collected at Marshall Hall 

 139 contained either wild or cultivated fruit. The greatest interest 

 naturally centers in the cultivated varieties. 



Strawberries. — The earliest fruit on the farm is the strawberry. It 

 usually ripens about the middle of Ma}- and would naturally be 

 expected to tempt the birds. With a \'iew to measuring their depre- 

 dations on the crop, two \asits were made to Marshall Hall between 

 the 13th and the 20th of May of 1899 and 1900. A strawberry patch 

 in the Bryan kitchen garden was watched for several days in the 

 earty morning, when birds were feeding most busily, but although 

 catbirds, orchard orioles, and other notably f rugivorous species were 

 all around the patch, not one of the birds entered it for berries. On 

 the Hungerford place, adjacent to the wooded dell tenanted by the 

 colony of crow blackbirds already referred to, there was a large 

 strawberry patch, from around which were collected 13 blackbirds, 13 

 catbirds, and 2 orchard orioles, but only one of them, a catbird, had 

 eaten strawberries. On the previous day the patch was watched for 

 several hours. Only a solitary catbird entered it and he did not take 

 a berry. These and other observations showed that birds at Marshall 

 Hall did not harm the strawberry crop, but, on the other hand, pro- 

 tected it by destroying ground-beetles, which, as has been said, injure 

 the fruit. If catbirds were fond of strawberries, they would have 

 made sad havoc on these farms, for they fairly swarmed amid the 



