160 USEFUL BIRDS. 



April to September, Professor Forbes found that seventy-one 

 per cent, of their food consisted of insects, twenty per cent, 

 of fruit, and a small percentage of mollusks and spiders, 

 together with a large portion of myriapods. Mollusks, par- 

 ticularly clams, mussels, and snails, are eaten by many birds, 

 while the myriapod, or thousand legs, and the ground spiders 

 are eaten by most ground-frequenting species. 



The Wood Thrush takes its food from ground, shrubbery, 

 and trees in the woods, and even invades the grass land at 

 times, where it is said, like the Robin, to take earthworms. It 

 eats injurious grasshoppers and crickets, also ground beetles 

 and their larvae, click beetles, wireworms, and other Coleop- 

 tera, both tree-feeding and ground-feeding species. It gleans 

 cutworms from lawn and field, and is particularly fond of ants. 

 It also does good service in killing some of the most destruc- 

 tive caterpillar pests, not neglecting the hairy species, like 

 the forest tent caterpillar, and the larvae of the gipsy moth 

 and the brown-tail moth, as well as most of the hairless spe- 

 cies, such as both the fall and spring cankerworms, of which it 

 is fond. It also destroys the rose beetle, as Professor Forbes 

 found the stomach of one specimen crammed with them. 



This species appears to be quite as valuable as the Robin 

 in its insectivorous habits ; and, as it eats far less fruit than 

 the Robin, it must be of great service to man whenever it 

 can be induced to nest about his dwellings. Were cats, 

 birds'-egging boys, and bird-killing Italians suppressed, this 

 bird might become as domestic as the Robin, if not as com- 

 mon. The prospect of the transmutation of the substance 

 of noxious caterpillars, grubs, and beetles into the glorious 

 music of the Song Thrush, should stimulate us to learn how 

 to attract it to our homes and domesticate it there for all 

 time. 



KINGLETS. 



These pigmy birds are probably among the most useful 

 species in woodlands. They are extremely small, ranking 

 next in size to Hummingbirds, and therefore feed to a con- 

 siderable extent on minute forest insects so small as to escape 

 most other birds. They are peculiarly fitted to care for the 

 trees, for they are able not only to creep about the trunks 



