90 Bird Day Book 



when acorns are abundant and fresh, showing the greatest quantity 

 (57.4 per cent). 



Grain (2.57 per cent) was found in the stomachs for six months, 

 but in only February, March, and May were there noteworthy per- 

 centages. March shows 12.37 per cent, the other two slightly less. 

 The grain was nearly all corn, with a little wheat, but from the 

 season in which it was taken most of it evidently was waste. 



The farmer has nothing to fear from depredations on fruit or 

 grain by the brown thrasher. The bird is a resident of groves and 

 swamps rather than of orchards and gardens, so that it comes but 

 little into contact with the products of husbandry, and does not prey 

 upon them extensively when it does. The useful insects that it eats 

 are amply paid for by its destruction of noxious ones. — F. B. B. L., 

 in Farmers' Bulletin. 



m 



THE BROWN THRASHER 



■♦©♦• 



DARTING about in the thickets, 

 His red-brown coat to veil, 

 Foraging there amongst dead leaves, 



Thrashing his long brown tail; 

 Perching aloft in the treetops. 



Where all may hear and see, 

 Carols the bright brown thrasher. 

 Long and melodiously. 



"Listen, O listen! he's saying; 



"Glisten, glisten, you brook! 

 The sweet warm showers have beguiled the flowers ; 



O look! dear children, look! 

 The golden sun is shining. 



The earth is in gay array; 

 The world is rife with a wealth of life ! 



'Tis May, fair winsome May!" 



—A. B. B. 



