STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 6 1 



from being a fact, and investigation will show the reverse to be true. 

 Birds that feed entirely on insects, such as the swallows, swifts, night- 

 hawks, whip-poor-wills and bats, feed only when flying, and investigation 

 proves that their food is largely made up of our best insect friends and 

 aids, namely, the parasitic gnats, flies and ichneumons ; and it is a mooted 

 question whether this class of birds should have the protection of the law 

 or not. My investigations, which I admit have been crude and imperfect, 

 tend to show that they should not have protection, but be destroyed at 

 will, as I think that thorough investigation will show them to be noxious 

 in a certain degree. We are all liable to mistakes and to jump at con- 

 clusions. That eminent scientific a.nd practical (for he is one of the very 

 few truly scientific men who also observe the practical) ornithologist. Dr. 

 Elliott Cones, cannot speak too highly of the strictly insectivorous swal- 

 low, nor say too hard things of the almost strictly graminivorous English 

 sparrow; yet I am confident that a set of books kept by double or single 

 entry would show a larger balance on the right side in favor of the homely, 

 saucy, thieving and pugnacious sparrow; yet I must agree with him in 

 thinking that no more idiotic piece of business was ever accomplished 

 than the introduction of this 7nost noxious bird of England into this 

 country, the one tiny bird that the brave Briton, as history tells us, has 

 been fighting and trying to exterminate for centuries. It would be 

 equally sensible for Central Europe to introduce our plum-curculio to 

 look after its prunes ! 



But enough. Before any one has the right to write authoritatively 

 on the relations between birds and our insect enemies, the facts should be 

 reached by the most thorough, patient, scientific investigation. Who is 

 better qualified for this work than our own Professor S. A. Forbes? 



But I must make one more bold and characteristic assertion before 

 leaving this subject, which is this : Birds, as a rule, do not feed upon, and in 

 that way, or in any way, destroy what are generally known as noxious insects 

 to any great beneficial extent. This may be proven by asking what birds 

 destroy potato-beetles — black, striped or yellow, Colorado or native — 

 the tarnished plant-bug, or other chinch-bugs, the squash-bug, the cucum- 

 ber-beetle, the apple and other fruit-tree borers, the codling-moth, the 

 plum-curculio, the Hessian fly? and so on ad infinitum. It is true that 

 birds do feed upon and destroy many species of insects that might become 

 noxious but for them ; and further, which is very aggravating, some of 

 the most useful of the birds in this way are the ones most hurtful to the 

 fruit-grower, such as the robins, thrushes, cat-birds, etc. ; and I am forced 

 to say, in conclusion, that, after all the facts bearing upon the relations 

 of birds to insects are determined, it is barely possible that man may 

 successfully better his cond ition by conserving certain birds and destroying 

 others. 



We now come to the great destroyers of noxious insects, namely, 

 other insects. This part of my subject has been so ably handled by our 

 own and neighboring State Entomologists that it is unnecessary for me to 

 enlarge upon it. I will, therefore, only give a few observed facts, going 

 to show what a slender chance there is for some species of young cater- 



