[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Brown thrasher. Length, about 11 inches.]
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, practically all insects, and mostly taken in spring before fruit was ripe. Half the insects 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 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 insects that migrate thence to attack the crops of the farmer.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Catbird. Length, about 9 inches.]
The catbird[15] (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 northward 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 of the birds, but no corresponding gain in the supply of native fruits upon which they were accustomed to feed. Under these circumstances what is more natural than for the birds to turn to cultivated fruit for their food. The remedy is obvious: Cultivated fruits can be protected by the simple expedient of planting the wild species which are preferred by the birds. Some experiments with catbirds in captivity show that the Russian mulberry is preferred to any cultivated fruit.