BIRDS FEEDING ON THE MOTH. 229 



Do Birds feed on the Eggs of the Moth? 



The field agents employed in the gypsy moth work have 

 often noticed egg-clusters of the moth which appeared to 

 have been pecked open by birds. A large number of egg- 

 clusters in the woods presented this appearance. Occasion- 

 ally a bird was seen apparently pecking or eating the eggs. 

 A single species which would feed on the eggs during all the 

 winter months would be far more useful than many feeding 

 on the caterpillars during the summer. The eggs are so 

 minute that a bird feeding on them would destroy in one day 

 more individuals of the species than another could in one 

 hundred days by feeding on the large caterpillars. It could 

 find these eggs for nine months of the year, whereas the cat- 

 erpillars are to be found for less than five months. The de- 

 struction of the eggs also prevents all injury to vegetation 

 by the caterpillars, while if the eggs are allowed to hatch, 

 the caterpillars may do considerable damage before they are 

 killed. 



Wishing to do all possible toward protecting and fostering 

 egg-eating birds, I determined to learn by accurate observa- 

 tion and dissection whether any of our native birds were 

 destroying any considerable number of the eggs. For this 

 purpose Mr. Bailey was requested to watch birds during a 

 part of the winter of 1894-95. He selected several stations 

 for observation, one in an orchard and others in the woods of 

 the Middlesex Fells. The stations in the woods were chosen 

 because of the abundance of the egg-clusters of the gypsy 

 moth in the vicinity of each. The station in the orchard 

 was surrounded by a high board fence, built to prevent in- 

 terference from without, and several hundred egg-clusters of 

 the gypsy moth were exposed on a single tree. At all these 

 stations bait was hung upon the trees for the purpose of 

 attracting birds. Pieces of beef bone, suet, waste meat and 

 grain were used to attract the different species. Crows, jays, 

 nuthatches, titmice, kinglets, woodpeckers and tree creepers 

 soon found the bait and made frequent visits to the infested 

 trees. 



The birds soon became so accustomed to the presence of 

 the observer that they would feed within a few feet of him. 



