No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 357 



One of our peculiar records is the finding of a Screech Owl in the 

 stomach of a Great-horned Owl. It is well known tlra>^ owls are 

 sometimes cannibals. 



During last spring we had a very interesting experiment with the 

 Robins apparently pulling cabbage near Harrisburg. The account 

 of this was published in our July Bulletin and attracted a great deal 

 of attention. It is as follows: 



ROBINS DESTROY WIREWORMS. 



Difference Between Observation and Interpretation. 



It frequently happens that certain facts are observed definitely 

 and consequently can not and should not be denied, but the inter- 

 pretation is such that might lead to quite erroneous conclusions, and 

 even evil results. One of the most important duties of the teacher 

 of Nature Study or any branch of Natural History is to give training 

 not only of the minute observation of facts, conditions and phe- 

 nomena, but also their own interpretation and practical applica- 

 tion. 



An important case illustrating the ditterence between interpreta- 

 tion and observation is seen in that of a truck grower near Harris- 

 burg, who recently observed Robins at work in his cabbage field, 

 apparently pulling the cabbage plants in numbers, and he at once 

 shot quite a number of the birds. When brought to trial by the 

 Game Commissioner, he acknowledged having shot the birds becaust 

 they were destroying his property in pulling the cabbage plants, and 

 testified that he had seen them take the plants in their bills, pull 

 them up and throw them aside. He was not certain that they ate 

 any part of the plant nor anything near the plant, and it might have 

 been thought that they were doing it only for mischief. Doubting 

 such an unusual occurrence as Robins pulling plants for the purpose 

 of destroying them or without some definite and doubtless bene- 

 ficial end in view, a representative of the office of the Economic 

 Zoologist went with the Game Commissioner to the truck field where 

 the cabbage w^as growing, and there they saw, indeed Robins in 

 considerable numbers hopping over the ground, and often stopping 

 to pick up objects, and even scratching in the ground with their 

 bills, and then eating something. They were particularly busy quite 

 near the cabbage plants, and a number of plants v;eve seen lying 

 on the ground beside the hills, wilted and dying. A careful exam- 

 ination revealed the fact that the plants had been cut off rather 

 than pulled out, and in at least one case the Robin was seen to 

 throw aside one of these plants, which had been cut off but was 

 yet standing in its hole in the ground. Around the foot of the 

 plants and just beneath the surface of the soil worms were to be 

 found by the hundreds. It w-as found that the wireworms had cut 

 the cabbage plants, and the Robins were busily engaged destroying 

 these very injurious pests for which there is practically no remedy, 

 after they appear, and of which there are far too few enemies. The 

 facts were that the truck grower observed the Robins at work 

 around his cabbage plants, and perhaps occasionally lifting out some 



