5G 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Mr. Bailey .-arefully couuteJ the -r-ggs in the cvarie*-: of t' 

 moths, with the following results : 



ncy of these female 



No. 1 



8. 



9. 



10, 



158 No. 11 Ill 



272 «' 12 160 



127 " i;^ 193 



184 '' 14 » 131 



213 " ir. 281 



13.5 " Ki 242 



140 " 17 116 



220 '■■ IcS 281 



200 •' 19 192 



,130 ■■' 20 217 



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 observations, that each 

 chickadee will devour on the average thirty female canker-worm moths per day from the 

 20th of March until the 15th of April, provided these insects are plentiful. If the 



Fig. 30. (.Vspidu-ca splendoriferella.) 



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 eating these eggs. When we consider further 

 that forty-one of these insects, distended 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 



