1906.] ■ DISCUSSION 201 



The work of attracting birds about the house and domes- 

 ticating them there is of inestimable vakie to children as a 

 source of amusement, as training for the observational facul- 

 ties, and as an object lesson in kindness. This may be illus- 

 trated by the story of a bird box that was put up by the little 

 son and daughter of Professor C. F. Hodge, of Worcester, 

 Alone and unaided, they set up a pole, fastened a box upon it, 

 and later, when the young birds, which were reared in it, were 

 deserted by their parents during a severe storm, the young 

 people fed and reared the little ones. These birds became so 

 tame that when called, they w^ould come to be fed long after 

 they could fly and had left the residence of their human friends. 

 \\'hen we teach our children thus to love, protect, and feed the 

 birds, it may be possible to so increase the bird population 

 that those insects pests on which they feed, will give us little 

 trouble. 



DISCUSSION. 



Secretary Brown. You intimated in your lecture. Profes- 

 sor Forbush, that you had seen signs of the brown-tail moth 

 in Connecticut. We are very anxious in Connecticut in regard 

 to that insect. In fact, we live under the shadow of a great 

 fear that the gypsy moth and the brown-tail moth will invade 

 our territory. Will you please tell the convention more defi- 

 nitely where and what the indications were of the presence of 

 the brown-tail moth. 



Prof. Forbush. I do not want to say positively, Mr. Chair- 

 man, that the brown-tail moth is in Connecticut. What I saw 

 on the train was w^hat seemed to me to be indications of its 

 presence, but a man traveling at the rate of thirty miles an hour 

 cannot be sure. What I saw was simply a few leaves wound 

 up into a small web about so large, sometimes larger and some- 

 times smaller, and that is the usual way in which the young 

 caterpillars pass through the winter, and then the minute the 

 foliage starts up in the spring, they start out and commence 

 their work. I think I saw signs of it within two or three towns 

 of yours here, but, of course, it may have been something else. 



