198 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



week. We saw the parent bird visit a young purple martin 

 on a church-spire opposite our window five times in as many- 

 minutes, each time with an insect. A brood of partridges will 

 nearly exterminate the denizens of an ant-hill in a couple of 

 days. Woodpeckers are constantly employed in ridding the 



orchards of insects and their eggs, 

 which they skilfully discover under 

 the pieces of dead bark. Robins, 

 through the spring and summer, 

 are continually hunting for worms 

 and grubs which they find con- 

 cealed under the surface of the 

 ground. We recently noticed a 

 common chipping-sparrow capture 

 a moth, and upon depriving her o 

 it we found it to be that of the com- 

 mon apple-tree caterpillar (Clisio- 

 campa Americana) so destructive to 

 the orchards of New England. To 

 check the excessive increase of insects is evidently the great 

 task which birds are intended to perform. Did they have no 

 other olEce save to cheer and encourage humanity with their 

 beautiful plumage and song, and to typify a purer and more 



ethereal existence to us creatures 

 who "grovel here below," even 

 then they would deserve the favor 

 of every Christian and every poet. 

 But when the useful is combined 

 with the beautiful, and a practi- 

 cal value is added to an elevating 

 symbol, they command the inter- 

 est of every one, and their pro- 

 tection becomes a matter of con- 

 Fig. 9.— Houae-wren. T. adon. SCqueUCe tO all. 



Fig. 8.— Titmice. 



DECREASE IN NUMBER OF BIRDS. 



It is a mournful fact of history that during the past few 

 years there has been a steady decrease in the number of our 

 native birds in all parts of the country where man has formed 

 his settlements. To account for this fact is easy. Man enters 

 the forests which for hundreds of years have been the undis- 



