270 Missouri State Horticultural Society. 



as the cardinal red-birds. In about three years the notes of some 

 other birds were heard on onr premises and the adjoining farms 

 and orchards. One day in .early June while the trees hung full of 

 their swelling loads of worm nests and people around us were hope- 

 less of doing much in the fruit way on this account, my neighbor, 

 Mr. S. Blanchard, called mv attention to a bird he ^'had seen for 

 the first time, a strange looking bird, which acted stranger still, 

 for,^' said he, "this bird went at a caterpillar's nest, tore it right 

 and left and eat up all the worms. I think," he said, "there are a 

 pair of them.'^ He could give me no idea of the probable name 

 of it, not being much of a bird noticer, but just then he exclaimed, 

 "There is the bird now, see I It is after a nest of worms." That 

 bird was the South Carolina mocker, usually called cat bird. They 

 came in great numbers to stay and the result was that by two years 

 more not one single worm nest could be found in orchard or grove. 

 Nor has there been for fourteen years a nest of the kind on the 

 premises. 



We know of whole regions so infested with this curse, the 

 tent-caterpillar, that even forest trees are dying out, ajjple trees are 

 protected with difficulty, and yet so great is the stupidity, ignor- 

 ance, and wickedness of " the natives " that were a colony of 

 cat-birds to visit a sour cherry tree there they would be stoned or 

 shot to death by boys hounded on to this suicidal amusement. So 

 much for meanness, ignorance and love of blood, which, like 

 selfishness, acts as a two-edged sword to slay the wieldei-s. 



In addition to this exemption we have enjoyed the delightful 

 song of this most charming of American songsters — even though 

 interrupted as it is by a most cunning mischievous " me-au " at 

 times. However this is no worse than being at some fine perform- 

 ance and disturbed by the j)ea-nut fiend — no, not half so bad. 



And, thus encouraging the birds, the cunning delightful little 

 rogue, the wren above all, in no long time we found troops of them 

 of various kinds every year bringing some new variety to our 

 orchards, not new to ornithology, but new to our immediate region. 

 During the first few years there were only those mentioned with 

 the Baltimore and orchard orioles and robins. But as years passed 

 others came ; notably one of the latest is the crimson breasted 

 gross beak, decidedly one of the most beautiful and -charming of 

 all the air. Their note is a delicate warble somewhat like the 

 robin's, but lower and smoother. With his snow white breast 

 splashed with a pure blood red, one might suppose the bird had 

 just been wounded. This description applies to the male ; the 

 female is very like a partridge in color. 



