BIRDS IN THE ORCHARD. 



-E occasionally come across a man 

 who is opposed to spraying-, 

 considering- it an altogether too 

 laborious and useless work. 

 Such a man cited to me an orchard where 

 its apples were unexcelled in freedom from 

 worms and the orchard equally so in im- 

 munity from caterpillars. 



Now this seemed pretty strongly to con- 

 firm his anti-spraying views. Thinking 

 that there was some cause for this high 

 state of excellence where no spraying was 

 in vogue, I had an interview with the owner 

 in regard to this matter and was told that 

 the only cause he could assign to it was the 

 work of birds, for during last spring and 

 summer myriads of birds were busily en- 

 gaged in the orchard. In the vicinity of 

 the orchard was a grove of evergreens, 

 through which ran a stream of water. Amid 

 these trees numerous nests were to be found. 

 To show that these very birds had a power- 

 ful influence in ridding the orchard of pests, 

 we will cite a few facts issued by the New 

 York Department of Agriculture. The 

 United States authorities at Washington 

 have been dissecting some thousands of 

 birds and have made records of the contents 

 of the stomachs of each bird. 



We will now name a few birds and show 

 the contents of stomach. The winter food 

 of chickadees was found to be largely eg-gs 

 of canker worms, each stomach on being 

 examined contained 300 to 450 eggs of the 

 canker worm. 



Ninety-nine per cent, of the stomach con- 

 tents of thirty meadow larks was caterpillars, 

 grasshoppers and beetles. 



In 46 black-billed cuckoos there were 

 found go6 caterpillars, 44 beetles, 96 grass- 

 hoppers, 100 sandflies, 15 spiders. 



In 109 yellow-billed cuckoos there were 

 found 1,865 caterpillers, 342 grasshoppers, 



69 bugs, 6 flies and 86 spiders ; surely there 

 was but very little room for fruit. In one 

 stomach alone there were 250 tent caterpil- 

 lars. From two-thirds to three-quarters of 

 the food of the woodpecker consists of in- 

 sects. 



In two flickers, 3,000 ants were found in 

 each stomach. 



It has been stated that the king bird is 

 destructive to bees, but the following- will 

 discredit this assertion. Out of 281 king 

 birds there was only 14 stomachs which had 

 bees and 90 per cent, of its food was found 

 to be insects. The blue jay eats many nox:i- 

 ous insects, also the crow, barn swallow, 

 and our old familiar friend the robin. 



I have noticed in our own orchard that 

 the woodpecker seemed quite at home 

 around peach trees, digging for all they 

 were worth for the peach borer. 



We might relate many more examples in 

 these researches, but surely enough has been 

 said to show that birds are no small factor 

 in this matter of ridding our orchards of in- 

 sects. Acts of legislation have been passed 

 forbidding the slaughtering of many birds, 

 and now each of us, as individuals, should 

 take an interest in rearing and protecting 

 the beautiful feathered fruit protectors, and 

 and only be too happy to allow them the 

 very meagfre allowance of fruit which they 

 eat, and which is indeed very small in com- 

 parison to the insects which they devour. 



Birds need the protection of dense trees, 

 quiet resting places in which to hatch 

 their eggs and care for their young ; 

 evergreens are a favorable aesort for many 

 birds. Birds are much like other animals, 

 they can become to a certain extent do- 

 mesticated, and live around the same 

 places as well as any domestic lowl. 



Prof. D. Lange, in his book, " Our 

 Native Birds ; how to protect and how to 



