36 TWENTY-EIGHTH REPORT ON THE STATE MUSEUM. 
tainly if the tree is at all diseased before its attack, the insects 
must be exceedingly quick to detect it, else they could not be 
found in abundance in trees whose leaves are yet green and 
whose sapwood is yet fresh and moist, except where stained 
by their excavations. 
In the vicinity of Lake Pleasant the affected trees are upon 
the mountain slopes or on dry ridges where the spruces are: 
especially abundant. And we might naturally expect that the 
insects would be attracted to and carry on their depredation 
most extensively in those localities where the material on which 
they work is most abundant. In the valleys I saw no trees 
affected by them and yet they doubtless do carry on their 
destructive work in the low lands where spruces abound. I 
see no reason why they should not. 
In some localities their ravages have already ceased. On the 
slopes of an elevation a few miles southwest from Speculator 
Mountain there are two groves of dead spruces. Many trees in 
both were examined and, though all the dead ones bore un- 
mistakable marks of the former presence of the beetle, not one 
could now be found either in the adult or in the larval state. 
What had caused them to disappear? Surely not the lack of 
material on which to work, for several large living spruces yet 
remained. This leads to the consideration of remedies. Doubt- 
less there are natural agencies whose free operation has a 
tendency to check the ravages of these insects and to prevent 
their excessive multiplication, but there are times and locali- 
ties in which these opposing agencies are inefficient or inoper- 
ative, and then these destructive insects multiply rapidly and 
their ravages become painfully apparent. It is then necessary 
that man himself should do something to protect his property 
from these active little foes. It was noticeable that many of 
the dead trees, in the two groves just mentioned, had their 
bark so chipped by wood-peckers that the general hue of the 
trunk was a reddish-brown instead of the usual grayish- 
brown. Here then is a possible explanation of the cessation 
of the ravages and the absence of the insects. Here is doubt- 
less the indication of one of natures antidotes to the mischief. 
The wood-pecker is the natural foe of such insects. With its 
long beak and barbed tongue it extracts them as a dainty 
morsel from beneath the bark. It is quite probable that 
these birds had congregated in these two localities in sufficient 
numbers to completely stop the ravages of the insects. 
