BIKDS. 143 



most injiii-ious insects l)ut other f>rou})s are not to l)e 

 overlooked. We have, for instance, the vast nuniljers of 

 beetles, to which group belong the various tree borers, 

 weevils and curculios ; others of this tril)e devour the 

 leaves, bark, flowers and fruit of trees and plants, and 

 nniny very troublesome bugs belong to this group. Then 

 among the grasshoppers, locusts, crickets and the like 

 there are many pests. Among the Hies there are the 

 Hessian Hv, wheat Hv, hoi Hies and others. There are 

 in other oronijs different kinds of more or less trouble- 

 some insects. So that if we bring all these insect foes 

 totfether we tind an arniv of enormous size, an armv suf- 

 ticient, if allowed to go on unchecked, to ravage the most 

 fertile country more hopelessly than the wildest horde of 

 savages or the lircest conflagration. ^Nlan is almost pow- 

 erless to check this invading host, all his ingenuity and 

 all his knowledge has been again and again brought to 

 bear upon the evil and with so small results as to be al- 

 most in vain. To show how far man's resources avail 

 him in this matter let me quote a fact or two from an ar- 

 ticle hj Dr. Brewer in one of our popular periodicals. 

 In 1852 the forests of Lithuania were ravaged b}- the cat- 

 erpillars of one of the butterflies and although, aware of 

 the danger, the landholders set the peasantr}^ at work col- 

 lectino- the eo:ffs, larvie and adults and used everv means 

 in their poAver to prevent the evil yet it continued till 

 thousands of acres were ruined. The total loss must have 

 lieen enormous ; that in a single district was estimated at 

 $58, 000, (»<)(). And yet no one familiar with their habits 

 can doubt that had not the European Jays been almost 

 exterminated in these same forests a few years before, 

 nuich if not all this great loss would have been saved. 



The loss by the May chaffers in three districts of the 

 Hartz Mountains Avas estimated to be in 18()(') one and a 

 half millions of dollars and this is not an unusual h)ss so 

 far as I am aware and 3'et in these same districfs some of 

 the most useful birds are proscribed. 



