SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 181 
woodland, cornfield, and garden. Dr. Judd gives a sum- 
mary of the results of an examination of the stomachs of one 
hundred and twenty-one of this species ; thirty-six per cent. 
of the food was vegetable, and sixty-four per cent. was ani- 
mal, which was practically all insects, mostly taken in spring, 
when no fruit was ripe. Half the insects were beetles, 
mainly harmful species. The remaining animal food was 
chiefly grasshoppers, caterpillars, bugs, and spiders. 
The Brown Thrasher more than repays us for the cultivated 
fruit that it eats by the number of insect pests that it con- 
sumes earlier in the season. While it eats considerable wild 
fruit and some that is useful to man, it probably pays for 
this by destroying many of the disgusting bugs that eat. 
berries. As the Thrasher feeds much on the ground, it 
destroys many grasshoppers, crickets, white grubs, and May 
beetles. Professor Forbes states that in Illinois nearly half 
the food of this bird consists of waste grain picked from 
the droppings on the roads. He also asserts that it eats 
cultivated fruit in less proportion than do other Thrushes. 
There, as here, June beetles form a considerable per cent. of 
its food, and it eats both snap beetles and curculios. The 
Thrasher eats caterpillars, but mainly such species as are 
found on the ground. It picks up cutworms, cankerworms, 
and some gipsy moth caterpillars, but is not usually fond of 
hairy caterpillars. On the whole, it is a bird that should be 
protected by the farmer. 
Catbird. 
Galeoscoptes carolinensis. 
Length. — About nine inches. 
Adult.— Both upper and under parts dark gray; top of head and tail blackish; 
under tail coverts chestnut. 
Nest.— Composed of sticks and twigs, bark and rootlets, placed in « bush or 
vine. 
Eggs.— Dark, glossy, greenish-blue. 
Season. — May to October. 
The Catbird is very common in this State. Its voluble 
manner, cat-like cry, musical song, habits of mimicry, and 
bravery in defence of. its young are all too well known 
to need description. As an imitator, it is second only to 
the Mockingbird. I have heard the cry of the Bob-white or 
