THE MUSEUM. 



373 



Making a total of 105. In No. 2, 3 

 and 4 of the last table there were a 

 large number of eggs also. It is safe 

 to say that there were 1 50 eggs in 

 each stomach, in addition to the fe- 

 male moths eaten. 



Mr. Bailey carefully counted the 

 eggs in the ovaries of twenty of these 

 female moths, with the following re- 

 sults: 



No. I 



158 



2 72 

 127 

 184 

 213 



140 



No. 



8 220 



9 200 



... 130 



10 



1 1 , 



12 



13 



14 



15. 



16 



17 

 18, 



19 



20, 



1 1 1 

 160 

 193 

 131 

 281 

 242 

 116 

 281 

 192 

 217 



It will be seen from this table that 

 the average number of eggs found in 

 each moth is 185, Mr. Bailey is very 

 positive, from his continuous field ob- 

 servations, that each chickadee will 

 devour on the average 30 female can- 

 ker-worm moths per day from the 20th 

 of March until the i 5th of April, pro- 

 vided these insects are plentiful. If 

 the average number of eggs laid by 

 each female is 185, one chickadee 

 would thus destroy in one day 5,550 

 eggs; and in the twenty-five days in 

 which the canker-worm moths "run" 

 or crawl up the trees, 138,750. It 

 may be thought that this computation 

 is excessive, and it is probable that 

 some of the moths were not captured 

 until they had laid some of their eggs, 

 but the chickadees are also busy eat- 

 ing these eggs. When we consider 

 further that 41 of these insects, dis- 

 tended as they were with eggs, were 

 found at one time in the stomach of 

 one chickadee, and that the digestion 



of the bird is so rapid that its stomach 

 was probably filled several times daily, 

 the estimate made by Mr. Bailey 

 seems a very conservative one. He 

 now regards the chickadee as the best 

 friend the farmer has, for the reason 

 that it is with him all the year, and 

 there is no bird that can compare with 

 it in destroying the female moths and 

 their eggs. It was noticed that the 

 birds made no attempt to catch the 

 male moths. This, however, cannot 

 be considered as a fault, for the birds 

 accomplish far more by destroying the 

 females than they would by killing 

 males. 



The following notes from the pre- 

 liminary examinations of the contents 

 of the alimentary canal of chickadees 

 made by Mr. Kirkland are of interest 

 in this connection: — 



"Bird brought in by Mr. Bailey, 

 March 16, 1895: Gullet empty. Giz- 

 zard contained 270 canker-worm eggs 

 {Anisopteryx pomctaria), 46 case- 

 bearers (microlepidoptera), 6 coccoons 

 of a small tineid (near Aspidiscd). 

 These three kinds of food in bulk com- 

 posod 80 per cent of the g\zz2x^ con- 

 tents, the remainder being dark mater- 

 ial which I was unable to determine 

 under a hand lens. I think it very prob- 

 able that part of this was bits of bark or 

 particles of bark-dust taken in with 

 the eggs or cocoons. The intestine 

 contained a large quantity of meat, 75 

 per cent, and 103 canker-worm eggs, 

 10 per cent, the remainder, 15 per 

 cent, being material which I could not 

 identify. It was not meat. This 

 gives us as totals, 373 canker-worm 

 eggs and 5 1 microlepidoptera. 



"Specimens of so-called 'scales' on 

 apple twigs brought in by Mr. Bailey, 

 March 12, 1895. These are not bark 



