ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 239 



beetle for instance. But the destrur tiun of a single one of these vora- 

 cious larwc often saves a valuable plant, sometimes several, from ruin. 



Cro out, if you will, and watch the birds a while each day. Certainly 

 nothing could be more advantageous to their reputation, and nothing 

 would be more likely to bring large money returns to mankind in the 

 end. For if you look at the matter thoughtfully, you must become con- 

 vinced that birds are indispensable to successful agriculture and horti- 

 culture. 



Dr. Jenks of Massachusetts demonstrated by actual dissection to as- 

 certain the contents of the crop, that the food of the Robin during .March, 

 .April, jNIay, and part of June, consists entirely of insects and their larva?, 

 mostly of very destructive species. During the latter part of June, and 

 the months of July, August, and September, there is a mixed diet of 

 fruit and insects, the insects being in large proportion. After July, the 

 fruit is almost entirely wild, and even in June and July, the bird 

 does not go to a distance to obtain the tame fruit. Late in the season 

 his food is grasshoppers and similar insects. Dr. Brewer noted a pair 

 of Robins which fed their young until they left the nest, entirely on 

 cut-Nvorms. The same fact has been observed by other eminent author- 

 ities. The domestic pigeon feeds its young very largely on canker 

 worms, and no doubt the Turtle Dove and Wild Pigeon have been do- 

 ing us the same great service, and have been blindly considered by most 

 people as only good to shoot at. The Bluebird eats all kinds of insects, 

 and has a preference for some of the most destructive species, as the cod- 

 ling moth and its larva, c anker worms, and caterpillars. Tn the crop of 

 an Oriole were found three hundred grain-weevils. 



Last June 1 observed the rose-breasted (trosbeak engaged in 

 destroying the potato bugs. .Skimming lightly over the plants, he caught 

 the insect, then alighted on the ground to linish it. Several gentlemen of 

 my acquaintance whose farms are frecpiented by this bird, have noted 

 that he is diligent in the work of destroying this insect. 



A pair of Golden Orioles which I wat<;hed a year ago last summer, 

 visited their nests with insect food twenty times an hour, and they 

 worked from the earliest morning light until almost dark in the eve- 

 ning. The Robin visits his nest about as often, and generally with a 

 beak full of insects. A pair of K.ingbirds came over twenty times an 

 hour, and usually with several insects at a time. The Woodpeckers 

 visit their nests much oflener, indeed there seems to be a continuous 

 stream of provisions passing in at the floor of the dark nests in the trees. 



This direct testimony is not the only evidence in favor of the birds. 

 In Kurope, where the whole subject has been more deeply studied than 

 here, it has been observed that in certain districts where there was a 

 marked decrease in the number of birds, there was a marked and dan- 

 gerous increase of destructive insects. Vast sums of money have been 

 expended to arrest, by hand-picking the insects, the work of destruction 

 in valuable t'orests, but without avail. .\nd it is well known that a rea- 

 sonable number of certain birds, native to the country, and feeding 



