26 



THE MUSEUM. 



it is higlily unlucky, according to an 

 old saying, to pluck flowers out of sea- 

 son. E. M. Hardinge. 



Birds as Protectors to Orchards. 



By E. H. Forbush, Ornithologist, 



OF THE Massachusetts Board of 



Agriculture. 



Part Second. 



The woodpeckers and nuthatches 

 which frequented the orchards, were 

 not seen to eat the eggs of the canker- 

 worm moth. As they were not num- 

 erous, none were killed. Mr. Bailey 

 observed, however, that the nuthatch- 

 es 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, 1895. Mr. Bailey 

 brought in specimens of apple twigs 

 infested with the bark scale louse, 

 Mytilaspis pomorum. He reported 

 that the nuthatch was feeding on them. 

 These twigs were infested in a worse 

 rhanner 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 

 contained in a number of scales varied 

 from 62 to 82, with an average of 70." 



These scales, when numerous, are 

 very injurious to the apple-tree. Each 

 scale covered a dead female of the pre- 

 ceding year and the hibernating eggs, 

 many of which must have been dis- 

 posed of by the Nuthatches. I was 

 shown, both by observation and dis- 

 section, that birds feeding in the same 

 neighborhood and upon the same trees 

 showed considerable variance in the 

 character of their food. Kinglets tak- 



en, had no canker-worm eggs, but 

 had eaten largely of bark borers. 

 Woodpeckers seemed to confine them- 

 selves to the larvEe of borers and to 

 wood- ants and other insects which 

 bore into the wood of the tree. Chick- 

 adees and Nuthatches ate the pupae 

 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 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 

 observations 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 sus- 

 pended. 



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 be- 

 gan ascending the trees in great num- 

 bers. The Chickadees commenced 

 catching and eating the females and 

 their eggs. Mr. Bailey placed twen- 

 ty-two of the females 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 assid- 

 uous in their attention to the orchard, 

 and a small portion of their food con- 



