394 The American Naturulist. [May,. 
and extended back at right angles to the river until it rose to 
the level of the bluff. On the slanting sides of this depression 
a belt of catbriars (Smilax) afforded excellent cover for cat- 
birds. Just above the catbriars and concentric to them was a. 
belt of locust trees. The part of the gully next the river was 
swampy and supported a forest of willows, while the upper 
part was drier and afforded an abundance of ripe elder and 
blackberries upon which birds were seen feeding. The cat- 
birds seemed to devote most of their time to berrying, though 
some were seen way up in the tops of the locusts, which had 
been browned as by fire by the locust leaf miners (larve of 
Odontota dorsalis), the adult beetles of which were swarming 
in myriads over the leaves. Several catbirds sang sweetly in 
the sassafras trees, which were sparingly intermixed with the 
locusts, while others were seen hopping on the ground where 
they had a chance to pick up grasshoppers, millers or ants.. 
In all, 15 catbirds were seen in the little gully, and 13 of these 
were shot. Their entire digestive tracts were examined ; 9 of 
them contained the destructive locust beetle, 18 of these orange 
and black pests having been taken from one bird. This is 
surprising, because beetles of this family (Chrysomellidx) secrete 
a substance which is supposed to be distasteful to birds. Every 
one of the birds had eaten elderberries, and all but two black- 
berries. Five of the 13 had taken sassafras berries, and 3 wild 
cherries. Both of these fruits were bright green and very 
hard. The eating of such apparently unsavory fruit, when 
there was a plenty of luscious blackberries seems, to say the 
least, a whim of aviam epicurianism. In the insect food of 
these birds there were no ants or grasshoppers, but, on the 
other hand, the supposedly distasteful locust leaf mining 
beetles. The countless number of these beetles, and conse- 
quently the ease of obtaining them, seems to be the only circum- 
stance to account for the rejection of such favorite food as ants 
and grasshoppers. Not one of the false caterpillars ( Tenthre- 
dinide) that were observed stripping the cornel bushes under 
the willows was to be found in the catbirds, thus showing that 
these larve are not eaten when the locust beetles are obtain- 
able. From the knowledge gained by the study in this little 
