356 MINNESOTA STATE HORTIOULTIJRAL SOCIETY. 



the woodpecker, the bluebird, the Baltimore oriole, the golden- 

 winged woodpecker, the yellow-billed cuckoo and summer yellow- 

 bird. He adds "with such a formidable array of feathered enemies 

 the sudden disappearance of the canker worm for several years from 

 orchards where it was wont to play havoc is not to be wondered at." 



Prof. Cook, formerly of Michigan, in commenting on the food 

 of blackbirds, after a careful study of stomach contents, says they 

 are "excessive insect eaters through the entire summer, and it is a 

 rare thing to find beneficial insects in their stomachs." 



It might be said here that beneficial insects being for the most 

 part more active than the injurious forms and a large proportion of 

 them being very small, escape the attacks of insect feeding birds. 



In connection with blackbirds, the writer observed last summer 

 in grasshopper infested localities in Minnesota large numbers of 

 blackbirds feeding upon young grasshoppers in the stubble. Crows 

 occasionally helped in this good work. 



Fitch, in the 6th Report on New York Insects, gave Clir\somitris- 

 tis (our wild canary or black-winged yellow-bird, American gold- 

 finch, )as destroying the wheat midge. F. A. Forbes states, in bul- 

 letin No. 6 from the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, 

 that the straw-colored cutworm was found to be included in the diet 

 of robins, catbirds and red-winged blackbirds shot in the latter part 

 of May. Another list of birds destroying the canker worm includes 

 the cedar bird, or cherry bird, the chickadee, the black-billed cuckoo, 

 the yellow warbler, the bluebird and the rose-breasted grosbeak. 



In an examination of 125 stomachs of the cherry, or cedar bird 

 (Ampelis ccdroriim), the stomach contents of three nestlings were 

 found to be purely insects in the proportion of 80 per cent, 84 per 

 cent and 100 per cent respectively. In the stomach of one of these 

 birds were found crane flies, injurious beetles and seven specimens 

 of the insect known as the elm leaf beetle. 



Of birds known to feed on the codling moth, woodpeckers, 

 creepers and chickadees travel up and down the trunks of our fruit 

 trees and pick pupae or larvae from the cocoons in the crevices of 

 the bark. 



Of the imported English sparrow but little good can be said. 

 It is noisy, pugnacious and dirty, and though it has a penchant for 

 canker worms it drives away other birds which prey upon pests for 

 which the English sparrow has no liking. The writer must admit, 

 however, that he saw English sparrows this summer feeding upon 

 grasshoppers in the streets of Crookston. 



In conclusion, let us not be hasty in condemning a bird because 

 we think he is injuring our fruit or other crops. A year or longer 



