Some Common Birds Useful to the Farmer 
7 
BROWN THRASHER 
The brown thrasher 18 (fig. 5) breeds throughout the United States east of the 
Great Plains, and winters in the South Atlantic and Gulf States. It visits 
the garden or orchard, its nest, however, being in dense shrubbery or groves. 
The thrasher’s favorite time for singiug is in early morning, when, perched 
on the top of a bush or tree, it gives an exhibition of vocal powers which 
would do credit to the mockingbird. 
Indeed, in the South, where the lat¬ 
ter bird is abundant, the thrasher is 
known as the sandy mocker. 
The food of the brown thrasher 
consists of both fruit and insects. 
An examination of 636 stomachs 
showed 59 per cent of vegetable and 
41 per cent of animal food, practi¬ 
cally all insects, and mostly taken in 
spring before fruit was ripe. Half 
the insects were beetles and the re¬ 
mainder chiefly grasshoppers, cater¬ 
pillars, bugs, and spiders. A few 
predacious beetles were eaten, but on 
the A\hole the work Of the species as Fig. 5.-—Brown thrasher. Length, about 
an insect destroyer may be consid- H infixes, 
ered beneficial. 
Eight per cent of its food is made up of fruits like raspberries and currants 
which are or may be cultivated, but the raspberries at least are as likely to 
belong to wild as to cultivated varieties. Grain, made up mostly of scattered 
kernels of oats and corn, is merely a trifle, amounting to only 3 per cent. 
Though some of the corn may be taken from newly planted fields, it is amply 
paid for by the destruction of May beetles which are eaten at the same time. 
The rest of the food consists of wild fruit or seeds. Taken all in all, the brown 
thrasher is a useful bird, and probably does as good work in its secluded 
retreats as it would about the garden, for the swamps and groves are no doubt 
the breeding grounds of many in¬ 
sects that migrate thence to attack 
the crops of the farmer. 
CATBIRD 
Fig. 6.—Catbird. Length, about 9 inches. 
The catbird 16 (fig. 6), like the 
thrasher, is a lover of thickets and 
delights to make its home in a tangle 
of wild grapevines, greenbriers, and 
shrubs, where it is safe from attack 
and can find its favorite food in 
abundance. It is found throughout 
the United States west to the Rocky 
Mountains, and extends also from 
Washington, Idaho, and Utah north¬ 
ward into the Provinces of Canada. 
It winters in the Southern States, 
Cuba, Mexico, and Central Amer¬ 
ica. 
Reports from the Mississippi Valley indicate that the catbird is sometimes a 
serious annoyance to fruit growers. The reason for such reports may possibly 
be found in the fact that on the prairies fruit-bearing shrubs, which afford so 
large a part of this bird’s food, are conspicuously absent. With the settlement 
of this region comes an extensive planting of orchards, vineyards, and small- 
fruit gardens, which furnish shelter and nesting sites for the catbird as well 
as for other species. There is in consequence a large increase in the numbers 
of the birds, but no corresponding gain in the supply of native fruits upon 
15 Toxostoma rufum. 
16 D umetdla carolinensis. 
