630 
treats, but berry patches and ornamental 
shrubbery are not disdained. Hence the 
bird is a familiar dooryard visitor. The 
bird has a fine song, unfortunately 
marred by occasional cat calls. With 
habits similar to those of the mocking 
bird and a song almost as varied, the 
catbird has never secured asimilar place 
in popular favor. Half of its food con- 
sists of fruit, and the cultivated crops 
most often injured are cherries, straw- 
berries, raspberries and blackberries. 
Beetles, ants, crickets and grasshoppers 
are the most important element of its 
animal food. The bird is known to at- 
tack a few pests, as cutworms, leaf bee- 
tles, clover-root curculio, and the peri- 
odical cicada, but the good it does in this 
way probably does not pay for the fruit 
it steals. The extent to which it should 
be protected may perhaps be left to the 
individual cultivator; that is, it should 
be made lawful to destroy cathirds that 
are doing manifest damage to crops. 
Mocking Bird 
Mimus polygtlottos 
Length, 10 inches. Most easily dis- 
tinguished from the similarly colored 
loggerhead shrike by the absence of a 
conspicuous black stripe through the eye. 
Range 
Resident from Southern Mexico north 
to California, Wyoming, Iowa, Ohio and 
Maryland; casual farther north. 
Habits and Economic Status 
Because of its incomparable medleys 
and imitative powers, the mocking bird 
is the most renowned singer of the West- 
ern hemisphere. Even in confinement it 
is a masterly performer, and formerly 
thousands were trapped and sold for cage 
birds, but this reprehensible practice has 
been largely stopped by protective laws. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
mocking bird should receive protection 
principally because of its ability as a 
songster and its preference for the vicin- 
ity of dwellings. Its place in the affec- 
tions of the South is similar to that occu- 
pied by the robin in the North. It is 
well that this is true, for the bird ap- 
pears not to earn protection from a 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
strictly economic standpoint. About half 
of its diet consists of fruit, and many 
cultivated varieties are attacked, such as 
oranges, grapes, figs, strawberries, black- 
berries and raspberries. Somewhat less 
than a fourth of the food is animal mat- 
ter, and grasshoppers are the largest 
single element. The bird is fond of cot- 
ton worms, and is Known to feed also on 
the chinch bug, rice weevil and bollworm. 
It is unfortunate that it does not feed 
on injurious insects to an extent suffi- 
cient to offset its depredations on fruit. 
Myrtle Warbler 
Dendroica coronata 
Length, five and one-half inches. The 
similarly colored Audubon’s warbler has 
a yellow throat instead of a white one 
Range 
Breeds throughout most of the for- 
ested area of Canada and south to Minne- 
sota, Michigan, New York and Massachu- 
setts; winters in the southern two-thirds 
of the United States and south to 
Panama. 
Habits and Economic Status 
This member of our beautiful wood 
warbler family, a family peculiar to 
America, has the characteristic voice, 
coloration and habits of its kind. Trim 
of form and graceful of motion, when 
seeking food it combines the methods of 
the wrens, creepers and flycatchers. It 
breeds only in the northern parts of the 
Eastern United States, but in migration 
it occurs in every patch of woodland and 
is so numerous that it is familiar to 
every observer. Its place is taken in the 
West by Audubon’s warbler. More than 
three-fourths of the food of the myrtle 
warbler consists of insects, practically 
all of them harmful. It is made up of 
small beetles, including some weevils, 
with many ants and wasps. This bird is 
so small and nimble that it successfully 
attacks insects too minute to be prey for 
larger birds. Scales and plant lice form 
a very considerable part of its diet. Flies 
are the largest item of food; in fact, only 
a few flycatchers and swallows eat as 
many flies as this bird. The vegetable 
food (22 per cent) is made up of fruit 
