ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



55 



These food materials are suitable for birds at times when the trees are covered with snow 

 or ice and when, lackinji; such nourishment, they might starve. Although birds will 

 frequently visit bait provided for them and in time will eat a considerable portion of the 

 meat, they do not depend entirely on this aliment, but spend the greater portion of their 

 time in searching for insects and eggs in the immediate vicinity. 



Finding a plentiful supply of food, the chickadees remained about the orchard most 

 of the winter, except for a week or two, when the meat gave out, but they were lured 

 back again later by a fresh supply which was placed in the trees. Not only were the 

 chickadees attracted to the orchard in large numbers, but other birds came also. A pair 

 of downy woodpeckers {Dryohalps pubescens) and two pairs of nuthatches (Siita caro- 

 linesis) were frequent visitors, and a few brown creepers -(Certhia Americana) came occa- 

 sionally. All these paid frequent visits to the meat and suet, and also thoroughly inspected 

 the trees in search of insect food. They made excursions also to the trees in the neighbor- 

 hood, but the greater portion of their attention was confined to the orchard in which the 

 bait was suspended. As they became more accustomed to Mr. Bailey's presence they grew 

 quite tame, and could be viewed at a distance of a few feet. Indeed, chickadees frequently 

 alighted on his person and occasionally took food from his hand. He was thus enabled to 

 determine accurately (without killing them) what they were feeding upon, and was soon 

 convinced that they were destroying the eggs of the canker-worm moth in large numbers, 

 as well as the hibernating larvai and pupte of other insects injurious to trees. 



To determine how many eggs a single chickadee would eat, a few birds were killed 

 and their stomach contents examined, with surprising results. There was no difficulty in 

 identifying the eggs of the canker-worm moth which were found in the birds' stomachs, as 

 a great portion of the shells remained intact. The other insect contents of the stomachs 



Fig. 29. 



werejidentified for me through the kindness of Mr. A. H. Kirkland, B.Sc, assistant 

 entomologist of the State Board of Agriculture, who made the examinations. Although 

 it was impossible in all cases to learn with certainty the species to which certain insects 

 belonged, lit was evident that they belonged to the genera known to be of injurious habits. 

 I take the following from Mr. Bailey's notes : 



Number of Eggs of the Fall Canker- Worm found in Stomachs of Chickadees. 



No. 1 273 eggs. 



" 2 261 " 



" 3 216 " 



" 4 278 " 



Making in all 1,028 eggs found in the stomachs of four birds. Four birds killed later in 

 the season had eaten the female imagos of the spring canker-worm (Paleacrita vernata), 

 <Fig. 29, g), as follows : 



N o. 1 41 moths. 



" 2 18 " 



" 3 27 " 



" 4 19 " 



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 150 eggs in each stomach, in addition to the 

 female moths eaten. 



