134 
The Food of Birds. 
It eats two-thirds as many berries and one-third as many 
cherries and grapes as the catbird. 
Economic Value. 
Compared with the robin for corresponding months, 
this species seems to show very similar economic rela- 
tions. In both, the totals of beneficial elements eaten 
during this period are to the injurious about as four to 
three ; but with the brown thrush as with the catbird, its 
later arrival and earlier departure are to its disadvan- 
tage. Balancing as carefully as I can its seven parts of 
Lepidoptera, ten of leaf-cliafers, two of spring-beetles, 
two of snout-beetles, one of chinch-bugs and four of 
Ortlioptera on the one hand, against its six parts of 
Carabidse, two of predaceous Hemiptera, one of spiders, 
one of predaceous thousand-legs and twenty-one of small 
fruits on the other, I cannot see that, so far as the im~ 
•mediate consequences of its food habits are concerned, 
it does more good than harm. In short, its Ortlioptera 
must pay for its garden fruits ; that is to say, eliminating 
these two elements, I judge that the predaceous insects 
eaten would destroy during the year about as many in- 
jurious insects as the bird itself has taken. However, I 
must repeat the suggestion that they could hardly de- 
stroy the same hinds as the bird, and that, if allowed to 
live, they would probably decimate some species already 
sufficiently restricted by existing checks, and permit an 
unrestrained increase of others now kept down by the 
thrush. That the disturbances thus set up would soon 
lead us to regret this bird if its numbers were greatly 
lessened, is therefore very probable, and I believe the 
species should be preserved. We must not overlook the 
special services of the brown thrush in devouring a much 
larger number of June-beetles than any other of the 
species examined. 
