42 



Increase of Birds followed by Decrease of Destructive Insects. 



As an extreme contrast to the condition of the farm men- 

 tioned above, let me present another experience. Later in the 

 day we went to the State bird reservation on the island. Here 

 the army worms appeared to have been nearly as numerous as 

 at the other place, but no poison had been used because of the 

 danger of poisoning the heath hen, a bird now nearly extinct, 

 for the preservation of which this reservation was established. 

 The condition of the fields here was much better than at North 

 Tisbury. There was no noticeable injury in the cornfields. The 

 grass had been eaten somewhat in some of the fields, but 

 apparently there was no serious damage. Particular efforts had 

 been made here for years to attract and protect birds, and these 

 efforts had been successful. Many nesting boxes had been put 

 up on fences, posts, poles, etc., and most of them were occupied. 

 Birds were seen everywhere. Bushes at the borders of the 

 fields were more or less whitened by their excrement, which 

 showed that they had been living on animal food. With our 

 glasses many birds could be seen feeding on the army worms. 

 Many heath hens were noted in the fields, apparently picking 

 up these insects. Among the birds seen to feed on these worms 

 were the chipping sparrow, English sparrow, field sparrow, song 

 sparrow, robin, flicker, bluebird and red-winged blackbird. 

 Apparently, also, the brown thrasher, towhee and kingbird were 

 eating them, and people reported that cowbirds, catbirds, 

 yellow-legs and upland plovers also had attacked them. Robins 

 appeared to be among the most effective of all, and English 

 sparrows were quite numerous in the fields. The difference be- 

 tween the result of the insect invasion at North Tisbur^y and 

 that at the heath hen reservation seemed to have been attribu- 

 table mainly to the scarcity of birds at the former locality and 

 their abundance at the latter. 



On my own place at Wareham, in this particular year, much 

 pains had been taken to attract birds, and on neighboring 

 farms to the eastward nesting boxes had been put up so that 

 altogether more than 75 had been erected. Most of these 

 w r ere occupied by birds early in the season. Here, again, we 

 had ocular evidence of the utility of birds. While photo- 



