64 USEFUL BIRDS. 



rences may be gleaned from European records. Samuels 

 wi'ites that in Pomerania in 1847 an immense fi^rest that was 

 in danger of being utterly ruined by caterpillars was very 

 unexpectedly saved by Cuckoos, which, though on the point 

 of migrating, established themselves there for some weeks, 

 and so thoroughlj' cleared the trees that the next year " neither 

 depredators nor depredations were to be seen." ^ He also 

 speaks of a European outbreak of the gipsy moth {Bombyx 

 dispar) in 1848, saying that the hand of man was powerless 

 to work olf the infliction, but that on the approach of winter 

 Titmice and AVrens paid dail}^ visits to the infested trees, 

 and before spring had arrived the eggs of dispar were en- 

 tirely destroyed. This account agrees with the following 

 translation from Altum : — 



In the year 1848 endless numl^ers of the larvje of Bombi/x disixir had 

 eaten every leaf from the trees of Count AV^odzicki, so that they were 

 perfectly bare. In the fall all the branches and Imibs were covered 

 with the egg clusters. After he had recognized the impracticability of 

 it, he gave up all endeavor to remove them by hand, and prepared to 

 see his beautiful trees die. Towards winter numerous flocks of Titmice 

 and Wrens came dail}- to the trees. The egg clusters disappeared. In 

 the spring twenty pairs of Titmice nested in the garden, and the lai-va 

 plague was noticeably reduced. In the year 1850 the small feathered 

 garden police had cleaned his trees, so that he saw them during the 

 entire summer in their most beautiful verdure. - 



According to Reaumur, these larvae were so extremely 

 mmierous on the limes of the AUe verte at Brussels in 182(j 

 that manv of the OTeat trees of that noble avenue were nearly 

 defoliated. The moths swarmed like bees in the summer. 

 Thej^ were also very numerous in the park, and if one-half 

 the eggs had hatched in the following spring, probabh' scarce 

 a leaf would haA^e remained in these favorite places of public 

 resort. Two months later, however, he could scarcely dis- 

 cover a single egg cluster. This happy result was attributed 

 to the Titmice and Creepers, which were seen busily running 

 up and down the tree trunks.'^ 



' Agricultural Value of Birds, by E. A. Samuels. Annual Report of the 

 Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 1865-6fi, pp. 116, 117. 



2 Translated from Forstzoologie, II, 1880, p. 324. 



" Eeau. i .'WT. Cited by Kirby and Spence in theii" Introduction to Entomology, 

 1857, lip. 117, 118. 



