Adirondack Birds iyi their Relatio7i to Forestry. 21 



bird will consume dailj^ 30 insects. The total Adirondack region 

 comprises some 4,000,000 acres, with a bird population per acre 

 in summer of not less than four individuals. Tlie total dail}'' 

 consumption on this area would then be 480,000,000 insects, or 

 estimating 200,000 insects to the bushel, some 2,400 bushels. 

 The disastrous result of these 2,400 bushels of insects if they 

 were allowed to exist and multiply daily is only too evident. 



In the forest the work of the birds is of even greater import- 

 ance than in agricultural communities because here they are the 

 only direct means of destroying injurious insects, barring possibly 

 the work of the so-called " beneficial insects," like the clerid 

 {Thanasinucs nubihcs') , which is the enemy of the spruce borers 

 of the genus Dendrodonus. 



In the woods, spraying, poisoning and the various other 

 methods of destroying eggs and larvae cannot be practised, and 

 the forester must stand a helpless onlooker in the event of an 

 extended insect attack. Something can be done to protect a grove 

 of park trees, but with an infested forest area of several hundred 

 thousand acres in which are millions of trees, nothing can be 

 done. Fortunately wide-spread devastation of timber, such as 

 occurred in West Virginia from 1880 to 1893, and in the North- 

 east some twenty years ago, is rare, which fact is due, no doubt, 

 to quiet, yet efficient work which the birds are doing day by day 

 the year round. 



During the summer months the swallows and swifts are busy 

 by day darting through the air in pursuit of the aerial insects 

 which constitute their sole food supply. When night comes their 

 places are taken by the whippoorwills and nighthawks to whom 

 the night-flying moths and millers are legal prey. In open spots 

 on dead stubs or projecting limbs the various flycatchers sit like 

 sentinels, leaving their posts only to dart after passing insects, 

 which they secure by a series of lightning-like thrusts and darts. 

 Less prominent but equally efficient in their work are the thrushes, 

 sparrows and other ground birds, who explore among the grass 

 and fallen leaves for ants and bugs. In the foliage of the trees 

 the search is continued by the warblers and vireos, while the 

 creepers, nuthatches and chickadees wind up and down the limbs 

 and trunk, minutely investigating every inch of bark for eggs 

 and larvae. The woodpeckers complete the hunt by drilling 

 through the bark to obtain the ants and borers they hear at work 



