66 STATE POMOLOGICAI, S0CIE;TY. 



Beals, the head of this department, aAd he told me he had just 

 received 134 Meadow larks for examination. These birds had 

 been taken in Texas for the purpose of learning positively if 

 they were eating the cotton boll weevil. I am sorry to say that 

 I have not learned the result of his examination. 



Another one of our birds that is valuable to the fruit grower 

 is the Maryland yellow-throat. It is an easy bird to study for 

 three reasons : First, it has a distinctive habitat ; second, it has 

 a distinctive song ; and third, it has a distinctive coloration. Its 

 throat is yellow ; there is a black stripe across its forehead, eyes, 

 and cheeks ; its back is olive green. Its song is very character- 

 istic. It is written — whittity-whittity-whittity-whit, and witch- 

 cry-witchery-zvitchery-zvitch. I was lecturing on birds at the 

 Newcastle Summer School one summer, when a woman asked : 

 "What bird is it that says, 'Great Caesar-great Caesar-great 

 Caesar f " I said, "I do not know, but if you will come out 

 tomorrow morning with my bird class at five o'clock, I will tell 

 you what it is, if we can find it." She lived five miles from the 

 village, but at five o'clock the next morning she was on hand. 

 My class had been studying the Maryland yellow throat for a 

 week and every one in that class of forty-five had learned its 

 song. We started on our walk, when all at once this woman 

 exclaimed, "Oh, there's the great Csesar bird." And there was 

 our old friend, the Maryland yellow throat. I told this story at 

 a teachers' meeting in Augusta the next winter. After the meet- 

 ing a young lady came to me and said, "I have another story 

 about your 'great Caesar' bird. I went from that summer school 

 down to the beach and the cook at the cottage where I staid said,^ 

 'Do you know anything about birds?' I said, 'Yes, I know 

 anything.' 'Then please tell me what bird it is that every morn- 

 ing when I begin work, comes to the kitchen door and sings, 

 Gingerbread-gingerbread-gingerbread.' " The yellow throat is 

 a bird of the roadside and shrubbery wherever water is found. 

 But it is a constant visitor to the orchard for caterpillars of all 

 kinds. 



The yellow billed cuckoo should be better known for it eats 

 tent caterpillars from morning till night. Of 155 stomachs 

 examined between May and October, only one contained fruit. 

 In a five year study of the bird conditions in the State of Maine^ 

 covering various portions from north to south, stopping two 



