944 



THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



that a pair of sparrows will destroy 3, 3 60 caterpillars in a week. We saw the parent bird visit a 

 young purple martin on a church spire opposite our windows five times in as many minutes, 

 and each time with an insect. A brood of partridges will nearly exterminate the denizens of 

 an ant-hill in a couple of days. Woodpeckers are constantly employed in ridding the 

 orchards of insects and their eggs, which they skillfully discover under the pieces of dead 

 bark. Bobbins, through the spring and summer, are continually hunting for worms and 

 grubs, which they find concealed under the surface of the ground. We recently noticed 



a common chipping sparrow capture a moth, and, upon 

 depriving her of it, we found it to be that of a common 

 apple-tree caterpillar (Olisiocampa Americana), so de 

 structive to the orchards of New England. To check 

 the excessive increase of insects is evidently the great 

 task which birds are intended to perform. Did they 

 have no other office save to cheer and encourage 1m- 

 manity with their beautiful plumage and song, and to 

 typify a purer and more etherial existence to us crea 

 tures who grovel here below, even then they would 

 deserve the favor of every Christian and every poet; 

 but when the useful is combined with the beautiful, 

 and a practical value is added to an elevating symbol, 

 they command the interest of every one, and their pro 

 tection becomes a matter of consequence to all.&quot; 

 Mr. C. G. Maynard, of Ipswich, Mass., who in his investigations has opened the stomachs 

 of more than three thousand birds in order to ascertain the nature of their food, mentions the 

 following number of birds which devour the canker-worm and the larvaB of other injurious 

 insects: Red-eyed vireo, song sparrow, chickadee, scarlet tanager, robin, black-billed cuckoo, 

 wood peewee, least peewee, Wilson s thrush, black and white creeper, blue yellow-backed war 

 bler, Maryland yellow-throat, Nashville warbler, golden-crowned thrush, chestnut-sided war 

 bler, yellow warbler, black and yellow warbler, prairie warbler, black-polled warbler, Canada 

 warbler, redstart, cedar bird, cat bird, purple finch, white- winged cross-bill, chipping sparrow, 

 indigo bird, red-winged blackbird, cow blackbird, bobolink, Baltimore oriole. The same 

 authority says: Probably this list may be increased. Besides these birds, those species 

 which occur in orchards during autumn and winter, such as the ruby-crowned wren, brown 



BALTIMORE OBIOLE (Icterus Baltimore). 



CHUCK-WILLS WIDOW. 



Upper flg., YET LOW WARBLER; lower flg., 

 BLACK AMU YELLOW WABBLEK. 



creeper, nuthatches, and titmice, doubtless eat largely of the eggs of canker-worms and other 

 insects which destroy or injure the trees. Winter birds of the above species which I have shot 

 at this time have their stomachs crammed with insects of some kind. The Baltimore oriole will 

 eat largely of the tent caterpillar, and is the only bird which will do this. All the thrushes will 

 eat wire worms. The swallows destroy multitudes of dipterous insects (gnats, etc). In fact, to 

 sum the matter up, there is scarcely a bird which will not cat largely of insects at certain seasons, 

 when these pests are most abundant. It is a noticeable fact that many species inhabiting 

 woods and meadows leave their usual haunts and visit the fruit trees which are covered with 

 canker-worms, and largely devour them. 



