The Food of Birds. 
141 
Turbus alici^:, Bel. Alice Thrush. 
The Alice thrush is a bird of frequent occurrence (lur- 
ing the migrations. It breeds far to the north, rare sum- 
mer stragglers occurring in northern Illinois, according 
to Mr. E. W. Nelson, and probably winters quite beyond 
our limits. By Dr. Coues this is regarded merely as a 
variety of the following species. I have ten specimens of 
this bird shot in May, but none from the fall migration. 
This number is probably sufficient, however, to give a 
fairly correct idea of its food in spring. Five per cent, of 
the food of the month consisted of mollusks, chiefly Suc- 
cinea and Helix labyrinthica; ninety-three per cent, was 
insects and nearly half of these were ants, which reached 
the astonishing ratio of forty-three per cent., eaten by 
every one of the birds. Fifteen per cent, of the food was 
caterpillars; nine per cent, consisted of crane-flies and 
their larvae; Coleoptera amounted to eighteen per cent, 
(one-lialf Aphodiidse), and the remainder were wire- 
worms, curculios and plant-beetles. Carabidae amounted 
only to one per cent., the lowest average of these bene- 
ficial insects found in the food of any thrush. Among 
the species of Coleoptera we find Stelidota geminata, 
Onthophagus j anils, Conotrachelus anaglypticus, Chry- 
somela suturalis and C. similis. Grasshoppers make 
three per cent, of the food and Myriapoda two per cent., 
all Polydesmus serratus and undetermined Iulidav Of 
spiders merely a trace was found in the stomachs of two 
birds. The striking feature of the food of this bird is 
evidently its enormous appetite for ants, its high insect 
average and the almost total absence of beneficial ele- 
ments in its food giving to this little thrush an enviable 
status in relation to the farm and garden. 
Turdus swaixsoxi, Cab. Swainson's Thrush. 
This is a migrant of which I have too few specimens 
for generalization. Six in April and May were taken at 
Warsaw, Waukegan and Normal, and five in September 
from the vicinity of Cairo, in extreme southern Illinois 
and northern Kentucky. The food in spring is verv like 
that of the preceding species, its especial features beiiu>* 
the large number of ants and caterpillars and Coleop- 
tera. The September specimens, on the other hand, were 
