196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, [Jan., 



Our first attempt at availing ourselves of the services of 

 winter birds was made in 1896. The birds were attracted to an 

 old orchard by the methods just described, and in the fall, win- 

 ter, and spring they destroyed thousands of the eggs of the 

 cankerworm and tent caterpillar moths, probably also the larvse 

 and pupae of the codling moth, as well as scale insects, and 

 other enemies of the trees. When spring came, efforts were 

 made to attract the summer birds to the orchard with such suc- 

 cess that they destroyed most of the insects that were left by 

 the winter birds, and our orchard retained its foliage and bore 

 ■a good crop of fruit in a year, when nearly every other orchard 

 an the town (Medford, Mass.) was leafless and fruitless be- 

 cause of the prevalence of insect pests. 



The food of the birds in our orchard was carefully studied, 

 and the numbers of insects consumed by them estimated. For 

 ■example, four chickadees were found to have eaten at one 

 meal one thousand and twenty-eight eggs of the fall canker- 

 worm moth. Four birds killed later in the season were found 

 to have eaten one hundred and five egg-bearing females of 

 the spring cankerworm moth. As the female moths had, 

 on the average, one hundred and eighty-five eggs 

 each in their ovaries, these four birds had destroyed 

 at one meal over nineteen thousand of these eggs. 

 ]\Iy assistant, Mr. C. E. Bailey, estimated that each 

 chickadee would consume each spring 138,750 of these eggs. 

 It is easy to see why our trees were not leafless that summer. 

 In spring and summer, birds are attracted about our homes 

 mainly by the insects and fruit to be found there, and if the 

 farm is well provided with these, there ought to be no dearth 

 of birds. Still it is a good plan to keep our feeding shelf sup- 

 plied with food all the year round, and in warm weather, a 

 pan of fresh water will be used daily unless there are other 

 places near bv, at which the birds can drink or bathe. At nest- 

 ing time a little nesting material hung on tree or fence will 

 sometimes decide birds to nest near by. Swallows and phoebes 

 may be induced to nest, if they have free entrance into the farm 

 buildings, and projections are available on beam or rafter, 

 which will give needed support to their nests. But the most 

 successful plan to assure the presence of certain birds, is to 

 put up bird houses and nesting boxes. These boxes may be 

 inexpensive. Large cigar boxes will do for wrens, but should 



