476 
ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
summer resident in Northern Illinois. Tlie fall migration occurs earlier than 
that of the last species, and I have taken both vai’ieties on the same day — Sep¬ 
tember 1st; from this time until the end of the month it is abundant. During 
their stay, the greater number spend their time in groves of small trees, but 
woods bordered by fields are also visited by them, and occasionally they glean 
along fence-rows. Rarely one enters an orchard for a taste of grapes. 
Of eighteen specimens examined, three had eaten seven caterpillars; five, nine 
beetles; four, eleven ants; one, four moths*; one, an aphis; one, a spider, and one 
the grub of a carab beetle. One had eaten wild grapes, one black cherries, and 
one berries of Indian turnip. 
From the stomach of one specimen were taken four ants, four small moths, 
one aphis, one spider, and six eggs of some insect, apparently those of some 
moth, and probably from one of the moths which the bird had eaten. Birds are 
often mentioned as destroying the eggs of insects; in my own observations, how¬ 
ever, I have never found eggs in the stomach of any bird which did not appear 
most likely to have come from a fecundated insect which the bird had eaten, and 
it is my opinion that birds rarely make a practice of hunting insect eggs. 
Prof. Forbes found eight stomachs of the variety Alice’s Thrush, taken in 
May, to contain seven per cent, of mollusks, forty-two per cent, (of every bird) 
ants, thirteen per cent, of caterpillars, eight per cent, of crane files and two per 
cent, of predaceous beetles. One had filled itself with scavenger beetles. All 
liad eaten small curculios amounting to two per cent. 
The stomachs of six specimens of Swainson’s Thrush, one taken in April and 
five in May, contained twenty-two per cent, crane files, twenty-eight per cent, 
ants, five per cent, predaceous beetles (Harpalidae), several curculios, and in 
one stomach was found a mass of short-horned borers, Scolytus muticus, Say. 
6. TuRDUs FUSCESCENS, Steph. VEERY; TAWNY THRUSH; WILSON’S 
THRUSH. Group I. Class b. 
The Veery, though a summer resident, is common with us only during its mi¬ 
grations. Its haunts are among the shrubbery of low deep woods, where it is 
oftener heard than seen. Like the Wood Thrush it is apparently becoming rec¬ 
onciled to man, and is beginning to assume more familiar relationships with 
him. In the immediate vicinity of Ithaca, N. Y., it is one of the commonest 
birds. In the cemetery, and in the glens of CascadOla and Fall Creeks — both 
of them are Close by the campus and are visited by students every day,— all 
through the spring its subdued song has been one of the most attractive features 
of those beautiful scenes. The breeding habits of this Thrush are not such, at 
present, as to ensure it a very great abundance in agricultural sections of the 
usual topography, for it builds upon or close to the ground, where it is more 
likely to be disturbed unintentionally and where situations suited to its present 
tastes are rare. Mr. F. H. Severance found a nest of this species placed in a 
little opening near the banks of Fall Creek, upon a small brmcli of fiood-grass, 
and only hidden by the tall grass which grew around the spot. He simply looked 
into the nest, without touching it, and came away; but when, two days after¬ 
wards, we visited the nest together, we found that the suspicious pair had for¬ 
saken it. Such facts as this show how cautiously we must deal with these timid 
birds, if we wish to retain their services in any but their secluded retreats. 
Nuttall mentions an instance of a pair of these birds breeding in a garden near 
Bo.ston. At Ithaca, I have seen them passing from the fields back to glens and 
