1908.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT- -No. 73. 1(U 



SPRAYING v. BIRD LIFE. 



It has been often asked of the superintendent if the immense 

 spraying operations having for their object the poisoning of the 

 gypsy and brown-tail moth caterpillars would not also result in 

 the poisoning of the birds which feed upon these insects. Until 

 recently evidence bearing on this point has been only of a nega- 

 tive character. It is well known that certain birds like the 

 cuckoos, the oriole, vireos and a few others are quite partial to 

 a diet of hairy caterpillars; and it is not at all unnatural to 

 suppose that in the case of a bird consuming a large number of 

 partially poisoned caterpillars a considerable amount of poison 

 might be acquired accidentally, and the sickness or death of the 

 bird ensue. Additional reasons for this assumption are found 

 in the well-known resistance of the large gypsy moth caterpil- 

 lar to arsenical insecticides, and the relatively large quantities 

 of this insect consumed by the birds above mentioned. It is 

 doubtful if any of these birds feed to any extent on dead in- 

 sects; hence, the quantity of poison which a bird might acci- 

 dentally take in is restricted to that contained in the bodies of 

 the caterpillars which, at the time of being devoured, had not 

 fed sufficiently to be killed by the insecticide. 



During the summer of 1906 a yellow-billed cuckoo, which 

 had its nest in a very badly infested section of West Medford, 

 was found dead in a pear orchard which had been heavily 

 sprayed with arsenate of lead. The bird was turned over to 

 Mr. John A. Farley of this department, who carefully removed 

 the stomach. Later, the superintendent sent it for analysis to 

 Mr. H. D. Haskins, chemist at the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, with the request that it be tested both for 

 arsenic and for lead. Under date of Oct. 1, 1906, Professor 

 Haskins wrote : - 



MY DEAR MR. KIRKLANP:--! have carefully tested stomach and 

 contents of the American cuckoo that you forwarded to me, and found 

 the presence of lead and traces of arsenic. The lead was present in 

 considerably larger quantities than the arsenic, and I was able to isolate 

 it in minute globules. I was unable to make a quantitative determina- 

 tion of the two elements, on account of the small quantity of material 

 with which to work. To make a satisfactory quantitative determination 

 of the two elements, the chemist should have several of these specimens. 



