29 



The imported elm-leaf beetle (Galerucdla luteold) has de- 

 stroyed many elms in New England. In recent years, however, 

 it has not been so destructive as formerly. One reason for this 

 may be found in the fact that cedar waxwings have become a 

 notable enemy of the beetle. Mr. Outram Bangs gives an 

 instance where, in Wareham, Massachusetts, these birds saved 

 about 20 elm trees from destruction by these beetles. About 

 the year 1904, when the trees were 15 to 20 feet in height, they 

 were badly infested, but waxwings came regularly to the trees 

 in constantly increasing numbers, searching every limb and 

 twig. They often hung from the ends of the boughs, like chick- 

 adees, spying out the insects until they cleared them off. The 

 trees were not afterwards troubled. 1 



Mr. J. M. Van Huyck informed me that in 1911 cedar wax- 

 wings appeared in flocks on the elm trees of Lee, Massachu- 

 setts, and in some cases absolutely cleared the trees of this pest. 2 



In 1915 Mr. J. M. Stone of Greenwich, Massachusetts, wrote 

 that cedar waxwings had cut down the elm-leaf beetle to a con- 

 siderable extent, and that he had seen them preying on the 

 beetles by hundreds; that sometimes 20 or 30 birds alighted on 

 a single limb, staying there five or ten minutes, and they were 

 continually going through the trees taking the beetles from both 

 limbs and leaves. 3 



Dr. S. D. Judd recorded the reduction by birds of an out- 

 break of locust-leaf miners at Marshall Hall, Maryland. He 

 asserted that this beetle (Odontota dorsalis) became so abundant 

 that it turned the green of the locust trees into an unsightly 

 brown. Practically all the birds ate these beetles freely, and 

 aided by their united attack in reducing the numbers of the 

 insects to such an extent that they did not appear subsequently 

 in sufficient force to repeat the damage. 4 



In the year 1914, on my farm at Wareham, a part of a 

 newly set cranberry bog was attacked by white grubs of the 

 May beetle and nearly every plant was killed. This grub 



1 First Annual Report of the State Ornithologist, Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 

 1908, p. 13. 



* Fourth Annual Report of the State Ornithologist, Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 

 1911, p. 19. 



Eighth Annual Report of the State Ornithologist, Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 

 1915, p. 27. 



Bulletin No. 15, Division of Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 1901, p. 35. 



