244 REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



them most generously, not only during the winter season, but also in the summer 

 months. Nesting-boxes had been placed for them in most of the trees. Here the 

 trees presented a pitiable sight. Many of tlie elms and horse-chestnuts were entirely 

 sti-ipped of theu- foliage; the naked ribs of the leaves of the latter seemed ghastly 

 in their suggestion of fleshless fingers. Nowhere else in the city had I seen such 

 raAages. 



Trussing thence to Pearl and State streets, the same association of Sparrows, cater- 

 pillars, and then- desti-uctive work was seen. Clinton Square, wliere the Sparrows 

 had, in their introduction into the city, been specially taken under the care and pro- 

 tection of the residents on the east side of the park, afforded another excellent 

 test. It was evident that the Sparrows were in full appreciation of their privi- 

 leges from the almost incredible numbers sporting about the trees. Theu- proteges 

 were also in full force. Caterpillars and their cocoons met the eye everywhere, 

 wliUe hanging from the rails and caps of the iron fence surrounding the park were 

 the dead and decomposing bodies of caterpillars killed by the recent heavy rains 

 (often so fatal to insect larvas), in such numbers that they tainted the air in their 

 vicinity. 



It seems unnecessary to extend this record further than to add that m other sec- 

 tions of the city observations made were in accord with the above. 



HOW THE SPARROVrS PROTECT THE CATERPILLARS. 



That the Sparrows decline to eat the Orgyia caterpillar is not a charge against 

 them. They could not eat them with impim.ity. The diet would doubtless prove 

 fatal to them. The charge to which they are amenable is this: By the force of num- 

 bers, united to a notoriously pugnacious disposition, they drive away tlie few buds 

 that would feed ujion them. Of these we know but four species, viz: The Rol)in 

 {Merula migratoria), the Baltimore Oriole* {Icterus galbida), tlie Black-billeil 

 Cuckoo {Coccygus erythropthalvms), and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo {Coccygus Ameri- 

 canus). Tlie above species seem, in the ordering of nature, to have been assigned to 

 us for protection from an undue multiplication of a large number of hauy caterpil- 

 lars of injurious habits. * * * One of them, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, is known 

 to shave off the hairs of the Orgyia leucostigma caterpillar before swallowing it. 

 The following account of the operation is from Dr. Le Baron, former State ento- 

 mologist of Illinois: " My attention was attracted to a Cuckoo regaling lumself upon 

 these caterpillars, which w^ere infesting in considerable numbers a larch growing 

 near the house. My curiosity was excited by seeing a little cloud of hair floating 

 down upon the air from the place where the bird was standing. Upon approaching 

 a little nearer I could see that ho seized the worm by one extremity, and, drawing 

 it gradually uito his mouth, shaved off, as he did so, with the sharp edge of his liill 

 the hairy coatuig of the caterpillar and scattered it upon the wind." 



Under the head of Preventives and Remedies, Professor Lintner 

 advises '"' a relentless war upon the English Sparrows," and states that 

 the removal of this bird ''would also serve to diminish the losses an- 

 nually sustained in our orchards, forests, and gardens from the fol- 

 lowing well-known noxious species : The apple-tree tent-caterpillar 

 {Clisiocanipa Americana), the forest tent-caterpillar {Clisiocampa 

 sylvatica),t'hG fall web-caterpillar {Hyphantria textor), the yellow- 

 necked apple-tree caterpillar {Datana ministra) , the yellow wooly- 

 bear (Spilosoma virginica), and many others of the kind." (Second 

 report on the Injurious and other Insects of the State of New York, 

 by J. A. Lintner, Albany, 1885, pp. 80-83.) 



Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod, consulting entomologist to the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England, in her ninth report on Injurious 

 Insects and Common Farm Pests for 1885, states that the Sparrows 

 drive off Swallows and Martins, thus ]:>ermitting a great increase m 

 flies and insects "destructive in the garden and orchard." Miss 

 Ormerod cites a case in which the destruction of the Sparrows and 

 consequent reappearance of Swallows and Martins resulted in the 

 abolishment of the insect pest. 



*This bird has been seen with its head thrust into the web-nest of the tent-cater- 

 pillar, eagerly devouring its occupants. 



