131 
studied by me, only two birds, both robins, had eaten this species, 
and these in merely trivialamount. One hundred and eight blue-birds 
had not taken it at all, although from their food-habits and haunts, 
one would suppose the insect especially exposed to their notice. 
Fifty specimens of the common black-throated bunting of Central 
Illinois, shot at the time when this plant bug swarms most abun- 
dantly upon vegetation everywhere, had eaten only a single speci- 
men. These instances will serve to illustrate the fact that for some 
unexplained reason this abundant species is scarcely at all endan- 
gered by the presence of insectivorous birds. 
PREVENTION AND REMEDY. 
It is evident upon a moment’s reflection, that we cannot hope to 
reduce seriously the numbers of this insect except by the most gen- 
eral measures, since it is so widely distributed at all seasons. 
Something to this end may probably be done by clean farming, 
especially by burning the rubbish on the ground in late autumn, when 
the plant bugs may be caught in hibernation; but we shall un- 
doubtedly have to depend on repelling their attacks when they threaten 
injury, rather than on forestalling them by preventive measures. 
I need not weary the reader with a rehearsal of the various un- 
founded recommendations which have been made for the destruction 
of this insect, since only two of them have been previously tested 
by actual trial, and one of these was an entire failure. The exper- 
ience of Mr. Ayers, as reported by Prof. Riley in the American 
Entomologist and Botanist, is here in point. He says, “Mr Ayers 
tried many applications of different kinds this spring to ward them 
off, but even some cresylic soap, which we sent him for that express 
purpose, proved ineffectual, as the following experience will show: 
“<T first tried it according to directions, one pound of soap to ten 
gallons of water, and it was impossible to kill the bugs with it ex- 
cept by drowning; and they would swim in it an unaccountably long 
time before they would die. I then doubled the strength, using one 
pound of the soap to five gallons of water. After immersing one of 
them in this twice it would get dry and fly away; but by keeping 
him wet with it for ten minutes, it would: finally kill him. I thor- 
oughly saturated several rows of trees with it at the strength above 
stated, and three hours afterward found the bugs as thick as ever, 
and sucking away at the buds and leaves, as if nothing had hap- 
pened.’ ” 
Mr. Ayers finally protected his pear trees by going over all of 
them in the morning, and shaking each branch, causing the bugs 
to fall into a basin of soapsuds. ‘Three repetitions of this operation 
proved to be sufficient. 
From my experience with them in the strawberry fields, last spring, 
I have no doubt that they could be easily and very profitably cap- 
tured by boys with insect nets, and a little kerosene in tin buckets. 
Certainly in the nursery, this method would be cheap and effective. 
By beating the twigs back and forth with the net, in the cool of the 
day, when the insects are sluggish, great numbers of them could be 
rapidly caught; and by occasionally inverting and shaking the net 
