ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS TO THE STATE. 



57 



the fence, and every cranny in the wall for insects or spiders. They do not as a 

 rule, fly far afield, but work industriously in the immediate vicinity of their nests. 

 In this way they become valuable aids in the garden or orchard, and by providing 

 suitable nesting boxes they may be induced to take up residence where their serv- 

 ices will do most good. Their eccentricities in the selection of a home are well 

 known. Almost anything from an old cigar box to a tomato can, an old teapot, a 

 worn boot, or a horse's skull, is acceptable, provided it be placed well up from the 

 ground and out of reach of cats and other prowlers." (Beal.) 



Brown Thrasher (Toxostorna rufum). — "The food of the Brown Thrasher con- 

 sists of both fruit and insects. An examination of 121 stomachs showed 36 per cent 

 of vegetable and 64 of animal food, practically all insects, and mostly taken in 

 spring before fruit is ripe. Half the insects were beetles, and the remainder chiefly 

 grasshoppers, caterpillars, bugs, and spiders. A few predaceous beetles were eaten, 

 but, on the whole, its work as an insect destroyer may be considered beneficial. 



" Eight per cent of the food is made up of fruits like raspberries and currants 

 which are or may be cultivated, but the raspberries at least are as likely to belong 

 to wild as to cultivated varieties. Grain, made up mostly of scattered kernels of 

 oats and corn, is merely a trifle, amounting to only 3 per cent, and though some of 

 the corn may be taken from newly planted fields, it is amply paid for by the May 

 beetles which are eaten at the same time. The rest of the food consists of wild 

 fruit or seeds. Taken all in all, the Brown Thrasher is a useful bird, and probably 

 does just as good work in its secluded retreats as it would about the garden, for the 

 swamps and groves are no doubt the breeding grounds of many insects that migrate 

 thence to attack the farmers' crops." (Beal.) 



Catbird {Galeoscoptes carolinensis). — Professor Beal states that " cultivated 

 fruits can be protected from Catbirds by the simple expedient of planting wild 

 species or others which are preferred by the birds. Some experiments with Catbirds 

 in captivity showed that the Russian mulberry was preferred to any cultivated fruit 

 that could be offered". 



He adds : " The stomachs of 213 Catbirds were examined and found to contain 

 44 per cent of animal (insect) and 56 per cent of vegetable food. Ants, beetles 

 caterpillars, and grasshoppers constitute three-fourths of the animal food, the 

 remainder being made up of bugs, miscellaneous insects and spiders. One-third of 

 the vegetable food consists of cultivated fruits, or those which may be cultivated, 

 such as strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries ; but while we debit the bird with 

 the whole of this, it is probable — and in the eastern and well-wooded part of the 

 country almost certain — that a large part was obtained from wild vines. The rest 



