STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 97 



destroys, especially the canker worm and tent caterpillar. It is one of 

 our best-known door-yard visitants. Its sprightly ways, rich and mellow 

 song, and gaudy plumage, make it the favorite of all. 



Cherry Bird {Atnpe/is cedrorum). — This beautiful bird is a resident 

 of the whole United States ; is condemned and slaughtered by horticul- 

 turists more than any other bird. But tiiose who have interested them- 

 selves in studying the habits of this bird are willing to let him 

 have a share of the fruit he works so hard to save ; for he does work 

 hard, and to the point, as it is a well-known fact that he destroys more 

 larvffi of the canker worm than any other bird. And even in the cherry 

 season, when it is driven from every garden (and pays the forfeit with 

 its life if it enters), it may be seen, in the edge of the evening, catching 

 moths and other destructive insects, with which the air is then filled 

 by wholesale. I think one will do more good, by destroying injurious 

 insects, in two months, than five English sparrows (over which our East- 

 ern friends are going wild) will do in one year. And I do not think it 

 will benefit horticulture to kill off our native feathered friends, and 

 import foreign ones, when it is well known that they have worse habits 

 than our own. It is the only bird which seeks and destroys the cherry 

 slug, which furnishes no small item in its larder. 



Sap-Sucker {Sphyropicus variiis). — This bird, which has not a single 

 redeeming feature, is one of the greatest pests we have. As its common 

 name, "'sap-sucker," denotes, it lives almost entirely upon sap and the 

 soft under bark of trees, which it mangles and destroys in great num- 

 bers, to obtain its favorite food, as, by the formation of its tongue, it is 

 unable to draw insects from the bark of trees, like other woodpecks, 

 which, with the above exception, are among our best friends. 



Brown Thrush {Harporhynchus rufus). — This beautiful songster is 

 also tabooed from the gardens for taking a little fruit, for which it more 

 than pays us by its good qualities, sociabilities and beautiful song. In 

 spring it scratches among the leaves for worms, grubs and other insects, 

 which seek these places to winter in, and during the summer, when it is 

 shot for taking a few raspberries or strawberries. I think the gunner will 

 find, if he watches him a few moments, that he eats more grubs and 

 other insects than berries. There are seven or eight species of thrush 

 found in this State, all of which are the fruit-growers' friends. 



I wish the law was enforced for the wanton killing o{ birds, and the 

 robbing of their nests ; and in the course of five years we would see what 

 a verv great decrease there would be in noxious insects. 



C. W. DOUGLAS. 



Waukegan, III., Jan. ii, 1877. 

 REPORT ON GENERAL HORTICULTURE, FROM THE SIXTH DISTRICT. 



W. C. Flagg read the following paper on the condition of general 

 horticulture in the Sixth District : 



Your committee from the Sixth, or Alton District, has thirteen 

 counties from which to secure reports. From nine of these, through the 



