58 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



The woodpeckers and nuthatches which frequented the orchards, were not seen to 

 eat the eggs of the canker-worm moth. As they were not numerous, none were killed. 

 Mr. Bailey observed, however, that the nuthatches were eating scales which they found 

 on the limbs of the apple-trees in a neighboring orchard. In relation to these scales the 

 following note from Mr. Kirkland is of interest : 



"March 20, 1 895 Mr. Bailey brought in specimens of apple twigs 

 infested with the Bark Scale louse, 3Iytilaspis ^wmormn, Fig. ^l. He 

 repotted that the nuthatch was feeding on them. These twigs were 

 infested in a worse manner than I have ever seen before. They were 

 literally covered with the scales. On one small twig, one-half inch in 

 diameter, I counted 367 scales on one inch of the twig. The eggs con- 

 tained in a number of scales varied from sixty-two to eighty-two, with 

 an average of seventy." 



These scales, when numerous, are very injurious to the apple tree. 

 Each scale covered a dead female of the preceding year and the hiber- 

 nating eggs, many of which must have been disposed of by the 

 nuthatches. I was shown, both by observation and dissection, that 

 birds feeding in the same neighborhood and upon the same trees showed 

 considerable variance in the character of their food. Kinglets taken, 

 had no canker-worm eggs, but had eaten largely of bark borers. Wood- 

 peckers seemed to confine themselves to the larvpe of borers and to 

 wood-ants and other insects which bore into the wood of the tree. Chick- 

 adees and nuthatches ate the pupse and eggs of insects found upon the 

 bark or in the crevices of the trunks. No birds were seen to eat the 

 eggs of the tent caterpillar, nor were any found in the stomachs of any of 

 Fig. 31. the birds examined. It seems probable that these eggs are so protected 



by a hard covering that they are not eaten by most birds. 



It is impossible, in the limited space at our command, to give results of all observa- 

 tions and dissections in detail. We can merely give the apparent results of the presence 

 of the birds in the orchard. 



It was found that these birds were not only destroying the eggs of the canker-worm 

 in this orchard, but were feeding on the eggs of the same insect in the woods where bait 

 had been suspended. 



As the frost left the ground on the first warm days of spring the wingless females 

 of the spring canker-worm moth appeared in the orchard and began ascending the trees 

 in great numbers. The chickadees commenced citching and eating the females and 

 their eggs. Mr. Bailey placed twenty-two of the femiles on one tree, and in a few 

 minutes twenty of them were captured and eaten by chickadees . 



It was noticed as spring approached and insects became more numerous that the 

 chickadees came very seldom to the meat. They were not as assiduous in their attention 

 to the orchard, and a small portion of their food consisted of the early gnats which were 

 flying on bright sunny days. In early April they had nearly deserted the meat, although 

 they still frequented the orchard in search of the female canker-worm moths. They 

 seemed to prefer animal food to all other, and even in cold weather would hardly notice 

 grain or seeds of any kind, though one individual ate a few oat kernels which were placed 

 near his accustomed feed of meat. 



Towards the last of April the English or house sparrow {Passer domesticus) began 

 to make its appearance in the vicinity and apparently drove the chickadees to the woods, 

 as they disappeared and did not nest in the orchard^ but remained in the woods, where 

 they paired and nested. 



I believe that the English sparrow is largely responsible for the fact that chickadees 

 are not now found nesting in our orchards. Though they still nest in the orchards on 

 the remoter farms and in the villages where the English sparrow is not numerous, they 

 seem to have disappeared in summer from orchards near cities. At the time of the advent 



