35 
beetles were eaten, but, on the whole, its work as an insect destroyer 
may be considered beneficial. 
Eight per cent of the food is made up of fruits like raspberries and 
currants which are or may be cultivated, but the raspberries at least 
are as likely to belong to wild as to cultivated varieties. Grain, made 
up mostly of scattered kernels of oats and corn, is merely a trifle, 
amounting to only 3 per cent, and though some of the corn may be 
taken from newly planted fields it is amply paid for by the May beetles 
which are eaten at the same time. The rest of the food consists of 
wild fruit or seeds. Taken all in all, the brown thrasher is a useful 
bird, and probably does just’as good work in its secluded retreats as 
Fig. 19.—Brown thrasher. 
it would about the garden, for the swamps and groves are no doubt 
the breeding grounds of many insects that migrate thence to attack 
the farmers’ crops. 
THE HOUSE WREN. 
(Troglodytes aédon.) 
The diminutive house wren (fig. 20) frequents barns and gardens, and 
particularly old orchards in which the trees are partially decayed. He 
makes his nest in a hollow branch where perhaps a woodpecker had a 
domicile the year before, but he is a pugnacious character, and if he 
happens to fancy one of the boxes that have been put up for the bluebirds 
he does not hesitate to take it. He is usually not slow to avail himself 
of boxes, gourds, tin cans, or empty jars placed for his accommodation. 
As regards food habits, the house wren is entirely beneficial. Practi- 
cally, he can be said to live upon animal food alone, for an examination 
