STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 51 



bands spoken of below is to entrap the insect while in its cocoon.) The 

 best means for entrapping the larvte of this insect are the cloth, paper (or 

 wooden j bands, as have been often described. These may be old cloths 

 of any kind, carpets, woolen or other cloth garments of any kind, torn 

 in strips three to four inches wide, coarse, cheap straw or felt paper, 

 untarred building paper, veneering cut as for berry boxes, etc., in strips 

 three to six inches wide, and wrapped around the tree two or more times, 

 and tacked or tied fast. If the trees are clear of rough bark, the larvae 

 will seek these bands, as being the best available place in which to spin 

 their cocoons, and the bands can be examined and the insects destroyed. 

 These bands should be placed around the trees as early as the loth of 

 June, for Central Illinois ; a week earlier for the south, and 7nust be exam- 

 ined as often as once in twelve days, and the insects destroyed during 

 the balance of the season. (The last brood of worms, on leaving the 

 apples, spin their cocoons, but remain as worms during the winter, and 

 do not change to- the pupa state until the following spring; hence all 

 barrels and bins in which apples have been stored will be full of these 

 larvae in their cracks and crevices. They should be hunted out and 

 destroyed. Many moths may be destroyed on the windows or cellars 

 where apples have been stored.) 



IV.— Birds. 



ist. Those of the greatest value to the fruit-grower in destroying 

 noxious insects, and which should be encouraged and fostered in every 

 way. 



Note. — The thanks of the commission (and so should be those of the people of 

 the whole State) were tendered to Prof. S. A. Forbes, curator of the Museum and pro- 

 fessor of natural history in the State Normal University at Normal, 111., for his most 

 diligent research into the food and general habits of the birds of our State, for the pur- 

 pose of demonstrating their value as destroyers of noxious insects and their eggs, and as to 

 whether some that are also of value as insect-destroyers are not so noxious in destroying 

 fruit as to render them noxious. This is a very intricate ([uestion, requiring as yet an 

 immense amount of research and experience before all points can be officially and scien- 

 tifically determined ; and I hope our critics, if there be any, will not too hastily pass 

 judgment on our conclusions — arrived at, as they were, after consulting our own expe- 

 rience and the best authorities on the subject. Frof. Forbes is still at work on this 

 branch of natural history, and has a large amount of material, in the shape of birds' 

 crops in alcohol, yet to examine, and will gladly receive hinis from all parts of the 

 State, also the heads of birds, with the crops attached, either dried or in alcohol, for 

 examination for the public benefit. Also specimens of noxious insects, reptiles, abnor- 

 mal growths, fungi, etc. 



Blue birds, Tit-mice or Chicadees ; Warblers (small summer birds, 

 with pleasant notes, seen in trees and gardens) ; Martens ; Swallows ; 

 Vuros (small birds called green -necks) ; all birds known as woodpeckers 

 except the sap-sucker {Ficus varius) ; this bird is entirely injurious, as it 

 is not insectivorous, but feeds on the inner bark cambium (and the elab- 

 orated sap) of many species of trees, and may be known from other wood- 

 peckers by its belly being yellowish, a large black patch on its breast, 

 andthe top of its head of a dark, bright red ; the male has also a patch 



