62 BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM. 



birds. Some of them, such as. sassafras, blackberry, elder, and wild 

 cherry, drop their berries shortly after ripening them, while others, 

 such as hackberry, catbrier, and sumac, keep theirs well into win- 

 ter and even until spring. The bountiful supply of late fruit is most 

 noticeable just after the falling of the leaves. Then one may see large 

 trees festooned with the burdened vines of bittersweet, woodbine, cat- 

 brier, and wild grape. Besides the climbing plants, many shrubs and 

 trees are laden with fruit. The low horse-nettle is bright with yellow 

 berries; the rank pokeweed bends under long grape-like bunches of 

 dark purple fruit; and the persimmon is hung with yellow globes. 

 The sour gum has dropped its deep-blue berries and light-red leaves 

 together, but the holly is set thick with scarlet clusters that will glow 

 all winter amid its shining green. 



Some of the tastes exhibited by birds in their selection of fruit are 

 interesting and singular. Catbirds and vireos have been known to 

 pass bj'^ ripe blackberries and elderberries and choose green wild cher- 

 ries and sassafras berries. Many birds eat sumac berries, which are 

 practically all seeds and would seem to be about as satisfactory food 

 as so much gravel. Fully a dozen species select the berries of black 

 alder, which are as bitter aw quinine. Cedar berries, a favorite food 

 with birds, have an efFect on the human system like cantharides, while 

 the berries of pokeweed, nightshade, and poison ivy contain danger- 

 ous poisons. If birds are not immune from the toxic effects of these 

 berries, one may question whether they do not take them for stimu- 

 lation, as man takes tobacco and alcoholic beverages. 



Poison ivy is eaten by practically all the frugivorous birds of the 

 farm. A crow that was shot November 16, 1900, had 144 poison- 

 ivy seeds in its stomach. The pokeberry is also a favorite fruit. 

 Mockingbirds and catbirds that were collected had fed on it so freely 

 that their intestines were discolored by its juice. During February, 

 1900, the snow was stained in several places by bright red spots with 

 a hole in the center an inch or more deep, at the bottom of which was 

 a mass of fruit pulp and pokeberry seeds. These deposits proved to 

 be excreta of cardinal grosbeaks that had eaten the berries, the heat 

 from the droppings having sufficed to melt the hole in the snow. 

 Nightshade berries {Solanum nigrum) were eaten by several birds of 

 the farm, especially by the bobwhite. During February and Novem- 

 ber, 1900, a few sapsuckers, downy woodpeckers, bluebirds, and 

 myrtle warblers, together with dozens of flickers and robins, and 

 scores of cedar birds and purple finches, fed on the spicy, stimulating 

 berries of the red cedar. 



Distribution of seeds by birds. — The large consumption of wild fruit 

 results in a wide distribution of seeds, which are voided by birds and 

 germinate where they are dropped. Some observations on crow.s will 



