COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 
11 
There appears to be nothing to prove that the mockingbird eats domestic fruits to 
an injurious extent. It has in general enjoyed about the same place in the affections 
of the southern people that is held by the robin in the North, and judging by the results 
of this investigation it well deserves the place.— f. e. l. n. 
BROWN THRASHER. 1 
Few birds excel the brown thrasher in sweetness of song, but it is so shy that its notes 
are not heard often enough to be appreciated. Its favorite time for singing is in early 
morning, when, perched on the top of some tall bush or low tree, it gives an exhibition 
of vocal powers which would do credit to a mockingbird. Indeed where the latter 
bird is abundant, the thrasher is sometimes known as the sandy mocker. 
The brown thrasher (fig. 5) breeds throughout the United States east of the Great 
Plains, and winters in the South Atlantic and Gulf States. It occasionally visits the 
garden or orchard, but nests in swamps or in groves standing upon low ground, and 
sometimes builds in a pile of brush at a distance from trees. On account of its more 
retiring habits 
it is not so con¬ 
spicuous as the 
robin, though it 
may be equally 
abundant. 
The food of the 
thrasher consists 
of both fruit and 
insects. An ex- 
ami nation of 
266 stomachs 
showed 37.38 per 
cent vegetable 
and 62.62 per 
cent animal 
food, the latter 
practically a 11 
insects. 
The most no¬ 
ticeable pecu¬ 
liarity in the food is that no one item is greatly in excess of others, while in the case of 
the yellow-billed cuckoo, for instance, caterpillars constitute more than half the food. 
With the thrasher the largest item is made up of beetles (18.14 per cent). A few of 
these (4.82 per cent) are of useful species, mostly predacious ground beetles. Others 
(13.32 per cent) are of a more or less harmful character, the great bulk being May 
beetles and weevils, or snout beetles. Among the latter is the notorious cotton boll 
weevil, found in six stomachs. May beetles, when in the grub stage, injure roots of 
grass and other plants. The 12-spotted cucumber beetle, another destructive pest, 
also was found in many stomachs. Beetles are eaten regularly throughout the year, 
although a little more from March to June than in other months. 
Ants form a surprisingly small percentage of the yearly food (1.38 per cent) when the 
fact is considered that the thrasher gets most of its food upon the ground, where most 
ants live. The small destruction of bees and wasps (0.93 per cent) is not surprising, 
as the thrasher is hardly agile enough on the wing to catch such swift fliers. These 
three insects, however, are very evenly distributed throughout the year, each month 
showing a small percentage. Bugs, mostly stinkbugs with a few negro bugs, make up 
1 Toxostoma rufum. 
