96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



ON ORNITHOLOGY. 



C. W. Douglas (of Waukegan) sent in the following report on the 

 subject of Ornithology : 



Our esteemed friend and co-worker, J. W. Velie, Esq., of the Chi- 

 cago Academy of Sciences, in his excellent report on "Birds Beneficial 

 and Injurious to Horticulture," read before your honorable body at Gales- 

 burg, December, 1870, said: "I have made no mention of the robin, 

 catbird, thrush or blue jay. Very much has already been written in 

 regard to the benefits and injuries done by these birds. Some, in writing 

 from the southern part of the State, claim them to be injurious ; while 

 the 'Douglas' from the north claims these, and also the gluttonous 

 cherry bird (^Ampelis cedrortwi), to be beneficial." Below I give some of 

 the reasons why we think they are beneficial and not ttijurious with us ; 

 and I think, when their habits are better understood, there will be a great 

 many of the same mind. 



The Robin {Turdus carolinensis). — This common and well-known 

 bird is one of the best friends we have, though none of our birds are 

 more unpopular w^ith horticulturists than this one, although the prejudice 

 is unjust and unfounded. They destroy nearly all kinds of grubs, larvge 

 and worms that inhabit the green sward and cultivated soil, and a great 

 number of crickets and grasshoppers, the larvae of locusts, harvest-flies, 

 beetles, etc., when turned up by the plow or hoe, and the great pest 

 known as the cutworm, which emerges from the ground by night to com- 

 mit depredations on the cabbage patch, melons, beans, etc. And as the 

 robin is one of the earliest birds abroad in the morn, searching for food, 

 it destroys great numbers of this pest. The services of the robin, in 

 destroying this pest alone, would more than pay for all the fruit it eats. 

 During the breeding season, the robin is hardly ever seen without one or 

 more worms in its beak, which it designs for its young, of which it 

 raises two broods in a season. 



The Cat-bird (^Minus carolinensis). — There is also a prejudice against 

 this bird by those who look upon the bad side of everything. It rears its 

 young, and gets most of its food, in that great harboring place for noxi- 

 ous insects, "the neglected corner," which is to be found in nearly every 

 garden grown up to underbrush, briars, etc.; and if it shows itself out of 

 its dark retreat, it is most unmercifully slaughtered for some fancied 

 wrong. It is one of our most melodious songsters, and a great mimic. 

 There is no bird which appreciates kindness more than this one. There 

 is a pair which nests in an evergreen near our house, the male of which 

 perches himself in front of the house, and pours forth his melodious lay 

 for hours at a time. 



The Baltimore Oriole [Icterus Baltimore^. — rThis bird, which is 

 said to trouble the gardens and vineyards through the central and south- 

 ern portions of the State, rarely touches a single berry with us, to which 

 he is justly entitled for the great number of injurious insects which he 



