56 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
of the year. Two specimens of worker honey-bees (Apis mellifera) 
were found in one stomach. None of the other Hymenoptera was of 
specially useful species. 
Caterpillars, cocoons, and moths amount to a little more than 8 per- 
cent of the food, and the greater number were eaten during the win- 
ter months. It is probable that they were hibernating and were 
raked out from under dead leaves or other rubbish. A few bugs, 
flies, grasshoppers, and spiders make up the rest of the animal food— 
about 6 percent. Spiders and myriapods amount to a little more than 
6 percent. 
Vegetable food—The vegetable food may be divided into three 
parts: Fruit, poison-oak seeds, and miscellaneous vegetable matter. 
Fruit represents nearly 18 percent, but it probably is not of much 
value. Several stomachs contained pulp that could not be identified 
with certainty, and might have been that of some cultivated variety. 
Seeds of Rubus fruits (blackberries or raspberries) were found in 12 
stomachs out of the 82. These, however, are as likely to have been 
wild as cultivated. Elderberry seeds were discovered in 10 stomachs, 
Cascara, or coffee berries (Rhamnus californicus),in 5,and manzan- 
ita berries in 1. The seed of poison oak (Rhus diversiloba, Pl. II, 
fig. 9), and a few of the nonpoisonous species of Rhus were eaten to 
the extent of 14 percent of the food. They were not found in many 
stomachs, but appear to be eaten in considerable quantities when 
eaten at all. The thrasher must be added to the list of birds that 
assist in the dissemination of the seeds of this noxious plant. 
The miscellaneous part of the vegetable food amounts to over 26 
percent, and is made up of mast, weed seed, galls, and rubbish. The 
mast was not further identifiable. Most of the seeds were so broken 
and ground up that only a few species were identified. Two stom- 
achs contained remains of grain—wheat in one and corn in the other. 
Leaf galls were found in several stomachs, and rubbish in quite a 
number, though here again it is difficult to draw the line between food 
proper and stuff that is accidentally picked up with it. 
SUMMARY, 
Although the thrashers eat some fruit, most of it is wild and of no 
value. Moreover, the bird's habits are such as to preclude the like- 
lihood that it will ever become a resident of orchards. Grain evi- 
dently is not a favorite food, and if it were it is doubtful if the bird 
would leave its chosen haunts for the sake of procuring it. It is not 
probable that the California thrasher will ever become of special 
economic interest. unless under very exceptional circumstances. In 
the meantime it performs its part in the great work of reducing the 
vast. numbers of insects. 
