SOME COMMON" BIRDS USEFUL TO THE FARMER. 
7 
presence should be encouraged about every farm, ranch, village, or suburban 
residence. 
BROWN THRASHER. 
The brown thrasher 1 (fig. 5) breeds throughout the United States east of the 
Great Plains, and winters in the South Atlantic and Gulf States. It occasion¬ 
ally visits the garden or orchard, but nests in swamps or in groves standing 
upon low ground. The thrasher’s 
favorite time for singing is in early 
morning, when, perched on the top 
of a tall bush or low tree, it gives 
an exhibition of vocal powers which 
would do credit to a mocking bird. 
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 36 per cent of vegetable and 
64 of animal food, practically all 
insects, and mostly taken in spring 
before fruit was ripe. Half the in¬ 
sects were beetles and the remainder 
chiefly grasshoppers, caterpillars, 
bugs, and spiders. A few predacious beetles were eaten, but on the whole the 
work of the species as an insect destroyer may be considered 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 prob¬ 
ably does as good work in its se¬ 
cluded retreats as it would about the 
garden, for the swamps and groves 
are no doubt the breeding grounds 
of many insects that migrate thence 
to attack the crops of the farmer. 
Fig. 5.—Brown thrasher. Length, about 11 
inches. 
CATBIRD. 
The catbird 2 (fig. 6), like the 
thrasher, is a lover of swamps 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 
Fig. 6.— Catbird. Length, about 9 inches. 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 America. 
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 
1 Toxostoma rufum. 
2 Dumetella carolinensis. 
