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. [Illustration: Fig. 20.--House wren.] 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._)