184 ANNtJAL REPORT. 



which I have not identified. This is an important consideration, 

 for all kinds of plants and trees, fruits, grease, meal, clothing, 

 carpets, and furs are subject to the ravages of moths. Any 

 warm sundown, when millers are flying about, young chicks 

 with all youth's enthusiasm, may be seen chasing them. A hen 

 will stand motionless over a cabbage plant half an hour, Micaw- 

 ber like, waiting for a miller to hai^pen along. Such an author- 

 ity on Southern horticulture as ex-Commissioner of Immigration 

 Dr. S. French, of Florida, expressed to me his high valuation of 

 hens in orange groves. 



Training doubtless will avail much. A friend tells of a pet 

 cockerel that came at his call to dig for worms. A hen of mine, 

 Twilight by name, was equally acute. Another, Gertrude, hav- 

 ing been fed many wood-grubs, to this day lingers about wher- 

 ever she hears an axe. 



A correspondent of the Country Gentleman, in an article which 

 has been widely quoted, rather sneers at the guess work of those 

 who praise fowls for fruit protectors. I have, therefore, made 

 my statements as definite and minute as possible, and extended 

 my observations and inquiries through more than one season. 

 He has, for instance, repeatedly offered his hens curculios, which 

 they would not eat. That there might be no failure to see them, 

 he laid his specimen beetles on a white plate. Now you are all 

 witnesses that hens are not accustomed to dining on ,china. 

 Where one bird would catch the idea of such an experiment, 

 ninety-nine would stand agape at the man's maneuvers. That I 

 might demonstrate his folly, I have served their favorite angle- 

 worms, white grubs and crickets, in style, on plates. Only one 

 or two of my flock, and those known to be especially bright and 

 aspiring individuals, would partake. Insects eaten freely in 

 their own way and time, they are generally too startled to notice 

 or accept when thrown at them. Such is not a fair test, either, 

 for those friendly and helpful bugs which horticulturalists do 

 not wish destroyed. 



To know positively what animals do not eat, would require an 

 almost omnicient eye. Under a great variety of circumstances, 

 I have known these birds we are considering, to pass unnoticed 

 or to refuse the valuable lady bug, destroyer of plant lice and 

 potato beetles. A lady friend, a great lover of gardening, sus- 

 tains me in this statement. Man can hardly estimate the benefits 

 conferred on him by the little ichneumon flies, which keep in 

 check gall insects, Hessian flies, caterpillars, potato worms and 



