Alabama, ipi8. 89 



per cent) are eaten now and then, and myriapods (thousand-legs) 

 to a somewhat greater extent (2.24 per cent), but very irregularly, 

 the maximum (8 per cent) in January. A few miscellaneous ani- 

 mals, like crawfish, sowbugs, snails, and angle worms, make up 1.26 

 per cent. Bones of lizards, salamanders, and tree frogs (in all, 0.93 

 per cent) were found in 11 stomachs. 



Of the insects eaten by the brown thrasher there is only one 

 class to which exception can be taken — the predacious beetles. That 

 these insects render some service to man is beyond reasonable doubt, 

 though some of them also do injury. Their destruction, then, is not 

 an unmixed harm, but in any case the more numerous noxious insects 

 eaten by the thrasher more than compensate for the useful beetles 

 incidentally destroyed. 



The vegetable food of this bird is nearly equally divided between 

 fruit and a number of other substances, of which mast is the most 

 prominent. Wild fruit, the largest item in the vegetable portion 

 (19.94 per cent), was eaten every month in varying quantities, the 

 month of maximum consumption (45.69 per cent) being September; 

 January and February, with dried-up fruit from the last summer's 

 crop, stand next. Altogether about 30 species of wild fruits or 

 berries were identified in the stomachs. Those most eaten are blue- 

 berries, huckleberries, holly berries, elderberries, pokeberries, hack- 

 berries, Virginia creeper, and sour gum. Some seeds not properly 

 classified as "fruit" were found, as bayberry, sumac — including some 

 of the poisonous species — pine, and sweet gum. 



Domestic fruit, or what was called such, was found in nine 

 months, from April to the end of the year, most of it (53.19 per 

 cent) in July. Raspberries or blackberries, currants, grapes, cher- 

 ries, and strawberries were positively identified by their seeds, but 

 as all of these grow wild, it is probable that much that is conven- 

 tionally termed domestic fruit is really from uncultivated plants. 

 The aggregate for the year is 12.42 per cent. Most unexpected in 

 the thrasher's diet was mast, principally acorns, although some of it 

 was so finely ground up that it was not possible to tell its exact 

 nature. It is also somewhat a matter of doubt as to just where to 

 draw a dividing line between mast and seeds, so that the proportion 

 of each is somewhat uncertain. In the case in hand the total for the 

 year is estimated at 23.72 per cent. Mast was eaten every month 

 except August, but mostly in fall and winter — November, the month 



