Part 4

The brown thrasher (fig. 19) 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. While it generally prefers a thickly grown retreat, it sometimes builds in a pile of brush at a distance from trees. On account of its more retiring habits it is not so conspicuous as the robin, although it may be equally abundant. Few birds can excel the 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 the 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, in the South, where the latter 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 121 stomachs showed 30 per cent of vegetable and 64 of animal food, practically all insects, and mostly taken in spring before fruit is ripe. Half the insects were beetles, and the remainder chiefly grasshoppers, caterpillars, bugs, and spiders. A few predaceous beetles were eaten, but, on the whole, its work as an insect destroyer may be considered beneficial.

Eight per cent of the 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, and though some of the corn may be taken from newly planted fields it is amply paid for by the 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 just 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 farmers' crops.

THE HOUSE WREN.

(_Troglodytes aëdon._)

The diminutive house wren (fig. 20) frequents barns and gardens, and particularly old orchards in which the trees are partially decayed. He makes his nest in a hollow branch where perhaps a woodpecker had a domicile the year before, but he is a pugnacious character, and if he happens to fancy one of the boxes that have been put up for the bluebirds he does not hesitate to take it. He is usually not slow to avail himself of boxes, gourds, tin cans, or empty jars placed for his accommodation.

As regards food habits, the house wren is entirely beneficial. Practically, he can be said to live upon animal food alone, for an examination of 62 stomachs showed that 98 per cent of the stomach contents was made up of insects or their allies, and only 2 per cent was vegetable, including bits of grass and similar matter, evidently taken by accident with the insects. Half of this food consisted of grasshoppers and beetles; the remainder of caterpillars, bugs, and spiders. As the house wren is a prolific breeder, frequently rearing from twelve to sixteen young in a season, a family of these birds must cause considerable reduction in the number of insects in a garden. Wrens are industrious foragers, searching every tree, shrub, or vine for caterpillars, examining every post and rail of the fence, and every cranny in the wall for insects or spiders. They do not, as a rule, fly far afield, but work industriously in the immediate vicinity of their nests. In this way they become valuable aids in the garden or orchard, and by providing suitable nesting boxes they may be induced to take up residence where their services will do most good. Their eccentricities in the selection of a home are well-known. Almost anything, from an old cigar box to a tomato can, an old teapot, a worn-out boot, or a horse's skull, is acceptable, provided it be placed well up from the ground and out of reach of cats and other prowlers.

It does not seem possible to have too many wrens, and every effort should be made to protect them and to encourage their nesting about the house.

THE ROBIN.

(_Merula migratoria._)

The robin (fig. 21) is found throughout the United States east of the Great Plains, and is represented farther west by a slightly different subspecies. It extends far north through Canada, and is found even in Alaska. Although the great bulk of the species leaves the Northern States in winter, a few individuals remain in sheltered swamps, where wild berries furnish an abundant supply of food.

The robin builds its nest in orchards and gardens, and occasionally takes advantage of a nook about the house, or under the shelter of the roof of a shed or outbuilding. Its food habits have sometimes caused apprehension to the fruit grower, for it is fond of cherries and other small fruits, particularly the earlier varieties. For this reason many complaints have been lodged against it, and some persons have gone so far as to condemn the bird. The robin is, however, too valuable to be exterminated, and choice fruit can be readily protected from its depredations.

An examination of 330 stomachs shows that over 42 per cent of its food is animal matter, principally insects, while the remainder is made up largely of small fruits or berries. Over 19 per cent consists of beetles, about one-third of which are useful ground beetles, taken mostly in spring and fall, when other insects are scarce. Grasshoppers makeup about one-tenth of the whole food, but in August comprise over 30 per cent. Caterpillars form about G per cent, while the rest of the animal food, about 7 per cent, is made up of various insects, with a few spiders, snails, and angle-worms. All the grasshoppers, caterpillars, and bugs, with in large portion of the beetles, are injurious, and it is safe to say that noxious insects comprise more than one-third of the robin's food.

Vegetable food forms nearly 58 per cent of the stomach contents, over 47 being wild fruits, and only a little more than 4 per cent being possibly cultivated varieties. Cultivated fruit amounting to about 25 per cent was found in the stomachs in June and July, but only a trifle in August. Wild fruit, on the contrary, is eaten in every month, and constitutes a staple food during half the year. No less than forty-one species were identified in the stomachs of these, the most important were four species of dogwood, three of wild cherries, three of wild grapes, four of greenbriar, two of holly, two of elder; and cranberries, huckleberries, blueberries, barberries, service berries, cranberries, and persimmons, with four species of sumac, and various other seeds not strictly fruit.

The depredations of the robin seem to be confined to the smaller and earlier fruits, and few, if any, complaints have been made against it on the score of eating apples, peaches, pears, grapes, or even late cherries. By the time these are ripe the forests and hedges are teeming with wild fruits, which the bird evidently finds more to its taste. The cherry, unfortunately, ripens so early that it, is almost the only fruit accessible at a time when the bird's appetite has been sharpened by a long-continued diet of insects, earthworms, and dried berries, and it is no wonder that at first the rich juicy morsels are greedily eaten. In view of the fact that the robin takes ten times as much wild as cultivated fruit, it seems unwise to destroy the birds to save so little. Nor is this necessary, for by a little care both may be preserved. Where much fruit is grown, it is no great loss to give up one tree to the birds; and in some cases the crop can be protected by scarecrows. Where wild fruit is not abundant, a few fruit-bearing shrubs and vines judiciously planted will serve for ornament and provide food for the birds. The Russian mulberry is a vigorous grower and a profuse bearer, ripening at the same time as the cherry, and, so far as observation has gone, most birds scorn to prefer its fruit to any other. It is believed that a number of these trees planted around the garden or orchard would fully protect the more valuable fruits.

Many persons have written about the delicate discrimination of birds for choice fruit, asserting that only the finest and costliest varieties are selected. This is contrary to all careful scientific observation. Birds, unlike human beings, seem to prefer fruit like the mulberry, that is sweetly insipid, or that has some astringent or bitter quality like the chokecherry or holly. The so-called black alder (_Ilex verticillata_), which is a species of holly, has bright scarlet berries, as bitter as quinine, that ripen late in October, and remain on the bushes through November, and though frost grapes, the fruit of the Virginia creeper, and several species of dogwood are abundant at the same time, the birds eat the berries of the holly to a considerable extent, as shown by the seeds found in the stomachs. It is moreover a remarkable fact that the wild fruits upon which the birds feed largely are those which man neither gathers for his own use nor adopts for cultivation.

THE BLUEBIRD.

(_Sialia sialis._)

The common and familiar bluebird (fig. 22) is an inhabitant of all the States east of the Rocky Mountains from the Gulf of Mexico northward into Canada. It winters as far north as southern Illinois, in the Mississippi Valley, and Pennsylvania in the east; in spring it is one of the first migrants to arrive in the Northern States, and is always welcomed as an indication of the final breaking up of winter. It frequents orchards and gardens, where it builds its nest in hollow trees, or takes advantage of a nesting box provided by the enterprising farmer's boy.

So far as known, this bird has not been accused of stealing fruit or of preying upon any crops. An examination of 205 stomachs showed that 76 per cent of the food consists of insects and their allies, while the other 24 per cent is made up of various vegetable substances, found mostly in stomachs taken in winter. Beetles constitute 28 per cent of the whole food, grasshoppers 22, caterpillars 11, and various insects, including quite a number of spiders, comprise the remainder of the insect diet. All these are more or less harmful, except a few predaceous beetles, which amount to 8 per cent, but in view of the large consumption of grasshoppers and caterpillars, we can at least condone this offense, if such it may be called. The destruction of grasshoppers is very noticeable in the months of August and September, when these insects form more than 60 per cent of the diet.

It is evident that in the selection of its food the bluebird is governed more by abundance than by choice. Predaceous beetles are eaten in spring, as they are among the first insects to appear; but in early summer caterpillars form an important part of the diet, and are replaced a little later by grasshoppers. Beetles are eaten at all times, except when grasshoppers are more easily obtained.

So far as its vegetable food is concerned, the bluebird is positively harmless. The only trace of any useful product in the stomachs consisted of a few blackberry seeds, and even these more probably belonged to wild than cultivated varieties. Following is a list of the various seeds which were found: Blackberry, chokeberry, juniperberry, pokeberry, partridgeberry, greenbriar, Virginia creeper, bittersweet, holly, strawberry bush, false spikenard, wild sarsaparilla, sumac (several species), rose haws, sorrel, ragweed, grass, and asparagus. This list shows how little the bluebird depends upon the farm or garden to supply its needs, and indicates that by encouraging the growth of some of these plants, many of which are highly ornamental, the bird can be induced to make its home on the premises.

Bluebirds are so well known that it seems unnecessary to urge anything more in their favor; but in view of the fact that large numbers were destroyed during the severe storm of 1895, more than ordinary vigilance should be exercised in protecting them until they have regained their normal abundance.

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Transcriber Note

Figures were moved so as to prevent splitting paragraphs. Hyphenation was standardized to the most prevalent form used in the publication.

End of Project Gutenberg's USDA Farmers' Bulletin No. 54, by F. E. L. Beal