Sr: BULLETIN 280, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
and moderately, and the total for the season was 3.74 per cent of 
the whole food. Wild fruits or berries of 22 species were found in 
72 stomachs, distributed through every month of the bird’s stay at 
the north. Beginning with 1.18 per cent in April, the quantity 
gradually increases to 87.17 per cent in October, when it makes more 
than five-sixths of the whole food. The average for the season is 
33.51 per cent. In this investigation Rubus seeds (blackberries or 
raspberries) are always reckoned as cultivated fruit, though prob- 
ably most often wild. Besides fruit, a few seeds and rose haws were 
found, which with a little rubbish complete the vegetable food (40.41 
per cent). 
Following is a list of fruits, seeds, etc., identified and the number 
of stomachs in which found: 
is 
Yew berries (Tarus minor) _-------_- Woodbine berries (Psedera quinque- 
False Solomon’s seal (Smilacina race- fOUG) {22 Bee & 2s ee ee ee 1 
MLOSG) eee a See eee Ee 1 | Frost grapes (Vitis cordifolia) _____ ra 4 
Bayberries (Myrica carolinensis) ~~~ 1 | Wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) — 1 
Mulberries\(Morusisp.)/.22— 2 10 | Flowering dogwood (Oornus florida) __ 3 
Spiceberries (Benzoin estivale) ~_--__- 5 | Rough-leaved cornel (Cornus asperi- 
CubPrantsa Cie voeSasps) oe ee eee iL (OUG) 22223 2 ee ee ee 
9 
4 
Mountain ash (Pyrus americanus) —_~- NDoswood=(Cornniuisesp)) 2 ee 1 
Service berries (Amelanchier canaden- Black gum (Nyssa sylwatica) —___---_- 1 
if 
6 
if 
SE St) a a is ES Le Ee 2 | Huckleberries (Gaylussacia sp.)------ 
Blackberries or raspberries (Rubus sp.)_ 17 ; Blueberries (Vaccinium sp.) ~------~- 
mRoseshaws! (CROs@ sp.) =-- 2 ee 1 | French mulberry (Callicarpa americana) 
Wild black cherries (Prunus serolina) — 1 | Black elderberries (Sambucus canaden- 
Chokecherries (Prunus virginiana) —--~~— 7 SOS) SU Se 1 Sn eager 1 
Domestic cherries (Prunus cerasus) —__ 4 | Other elderberries (Sambucus sp.) —-_- 3 
Crotonm (Croton (sp: = eee 1 | Fruit pulp not further identified______ 12 
S 
American holly (Jlez opaca) _.. SVE TS 
Of the two stomachs not included in the foregoing discussion, the 
one taken in Florida in January contained 93 per cent of wild fruit 
and 7 per cent of weevils, wasps, and spiders; the one collected in 
Alabama in February was entirely filled with animal food, of which 
88 per cent was caterpillars, 5 per cent May beetles, 6 per cent bugs. 
and 1 per cent spiders. 
Summary.—The animal food of the wood thrush includes remark- 
ably few useful insects and contains some very harmful ones, as the 
Colorado potato beetle and many of the Scarabeide, the larval 
forms of which are the well-known white grubs which are a pest 
to agriculture in preying upon roots of plants. The vegetable 
portion of the food contains a small quantity of cultivated fruit, but 
observation shows that the thrush is in the habit of picking up 
fallen fruit instead of taking it fresh from the tree. The eating of 
wild fruit has no economic interest except that it serves to distribute 
the seeds of many shrubs and trees. There is no occasion to dis- 
criminate against this bird in any way. It should be rigidly 
protected. 
