36 



large limbs of the fruit trees, and suspected at the time that 

 they were in search of apple worms. He noticed, also, that 

 these birds were busy around the sheds where he had stored his 

 winter apples and pears, and that they got every worm that 

 they could reach, even pecking holes deeply in the wood where 

 there were cocoons in nail holes or crevices in the boards. As 

 a result of several hours' search (at various times), before the 

 time for the moths to emerge, he found only one worm, and 

 that one had barely escaped, for others had been taken out 

 within a quarter of an inch of its hiding place. 1 



In some localities the downy woodpecker is very destructive 

 to the larvae of the codling moth. Dr. Rufus H. Pettit, ento- 

 mologist to the Michigan Experiment Station, records that in 

 almost every case where cocoons of this insect were concealed 

 under flakes of bark the birds had found them. 2 It is interest- 

 ing to note, also, that several observers have seen this wood- 

 pecker extract the young apple worms from the calyx end of 

 the fruit without any appreciable injury to the apple. 



The following is a translation from Bernard Altum, showing 

 how in Europe birds save trees by destroying eggs of the gypsy 

 moth. 



In the year 1848 endless numbers of the larvae of Bombyx dispar had 

 eaten every leaf from the trees of Count Wodzicki, so that they were 

 perfectly bare. In the fall all the branches and limbs were covered with 

 the egg clusters. After he had recognized the impracticability of it, he 

 gave up all endeavor to remove them by hand, and prepared to see his 

 beautiful trees die. Towards winter numerous flocks of titmice and wrens 

 came daily to the trees. The egg clusters disappeared. In the spring 

 twenty pairs of titmice nested in the garden, and the larva plague was 

 noticeably reduced. In the year 1850 the small feathered garden police 

 had cleaned his trees, so that he saw them during the entire summer in 

 their most beautiful verdure. 3 



The wrens referred to here probably were kinglets (Regulus 

 cnstatus), formerly known as golden-crested wrens. 



American birds apparently have not yet learned to destroy 

 great quantities of the eggs of the gypsy moth, although several 

 species are said to eat them; but nearly 50 species are now 



i Pacific Rural Press, Vol. XXXIX, No. 23, June 7, 1890, p. 580. 



* Bulletin No. 222, Michigan Experiment Station, December, 1904, p. 89. 



* Forstzoologie, Vol. II, 1880, p. 324. 



