100 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



and a great variety of smaller insects, varied with liberal 

 courses of strawberries." Fourteen nestlings studied by Judd 

 had eaten but four per cent, of fruit, their diet being chiefly 

 ants, beetles, caterpillars, spiders, and grasshoppers. 



While the cat-bird by no means deserves the cruel and 

 senseless persecution it too often receives, it seems to us that 

 the fruit-grower should be allowed to protect himself from 

 ruinous injury by it. We have no doubt that, on the whole, 

 the benefit which it does is much greater than the harm, 

 and its destruction should never be permitted except when 

 necessary to save precious crops. Professor F. E. L. Beal be- 

 lieves that " cultivated fruits can be protected from the cat-bird 

 by the simple expedient of planting wild species or others 

 which are preferred by the birds." Dr. Judd has shown that 

 Russian mulberries are preferred to cherries by these birds. 



OTHER THRUSHES. 



Every farmer's boy in the Middle States has heard the song 

 of the Brown Thrush or Thrasher. In many respects its 

 vocal powers excel those of any of the northern birds that are 

 known by every body. It is a shy creature, haunting shrub- 

 bery and underbrush and skulking away on the approach of 

 man. When scratching the dry leaves or running over the 

 surface of the ground, the rustling noise it makes is sur- 

 prising : in the palmetto brush of southern Florida we have 

 often been led to think some larger animal was present. It is 

 a regular migrant^ breeding in the north and wintering south. 



We are indebted to Professor Forbes for quite a full knowl- 

 edge of the food of the brown thrush. Two separate inves- 

 tigations were made, the first including twenty-eight birds 

 shot in Illinois during April, May, June, and July, and the 

 second sixty-four specimens covering the six months from 

 April to September. The feeding habits for this time are thus 

 recapitulated. 



"The brown thrush, arriving in April, finds nearly one- 



