SUPPRESSION OF PESTS BY BIEDS McATEE. 425 



Prof. F. E. L. Beal learned in an interview with Mr. H. Kimball, 

 of Hay wards, California (June 6, 1901), that several years ago 

 cankerworms infested his orchards and threatened their complete de- 

 struction. He banded the trees to prevent the larva? from ascending, 

 but soon after this was done Brewer's blackbirds discovered the 

 worms. They came in large flocks and very soon not a worm was to 

 be found. 



Prof. D. E. Lantz, who up to the time of his death was employed 

 by the United States Biological Survey, relates how an infestation 

 of cankerworms so severe that all the trees except poplars near his 

 former residence in Manhattan, Kansas, were defoliated the previous 

 year, was checked by birds. English sparrows, assisted principally 

 by warbling vireos, but at times by warblers and other small birds, 

 got control of the pests early in the season and prevented defoliation. 

 A group of apricot trees near the house was so carefully searched 

 that the foliage remained in almost perfect condition. 



E. H. Forbush, State ornithologist of Massachusetts, records 28 

 that — 



Mr. E. W. Wood, of Newton, a well-known member of the State board of 

 agriculture, informs me that during one season, when the spring canker-worms 

 (Anisopteryx veniata) became quite numerous in his orchard, a pair of Balti- 

 more orioles appeared and built a nest near by. In the meantime they fed 

 daily upon the cankerworms. This they continued to do so assiduously that 

 by the time the young were hatched the numbers of the worms were consider- 

 ably reduced. They then redoubled their diligence, sometimes carrying 10 or 

 more worms to their nest at once. Soon the canker-worms in that orchard were 

 a thing of the past. The foliage and fruitage were saved for that and many 

 succeeding years. 



Other smooth caterpillars known to be sometimes kept in check 

 by birds are cabbage worms, ground cutworms, climbing cutworms, 

 catalpa sphinx, tomato sphinx, and drop worm. The chipping spar- 

 row (Spizella passerina) has frequently been recorded as an enemy 

 of the cabbage worm {Pontia rapae) . Dr. J. Schwenk says 29 of this 

 species : 



By accident I was observing the patch early in the morning, from daybreak 

 to a short time after sunrise, when I chanced to find a number of chipping 

 sparrows * * * taking worms [cabbage worms] as busily as possible. By 

 continuing my observations I found this was the case every morning as long as 

 the worms lasted. 



Mr. J. B. Dunn, of Corpus Christi, Texas, gives information con- 

 cerning a destructive bird enemy of the cabbage looper (Autographa 

 brassicae). He is quoted 30 by Dr. F. H. Chittenden, of the Bureau of 

 Entomology, to the effect that "a bird known locally as jackdaw 

 (Megaquisccdus major) was particularly fond of these cabbage 



28 Mass. Crop Rep. Bui. 5, p. 30, 1894. 



29 Am. Nat. XIV, p. 130, 1880. 



30 Bui. 33, Div. Ent., p. 68, 1902, 



