308 FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



SECTION L. BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 



Those birds that live largely upon the enemies of 

 trees are indispensable to man, for it is impracticable 

 if not impossible for him by artificial means to pre- 

 serve and protect the trees from their enemies. Some- 

 thing he may do within the narrow limits of the or- 

 chard, but he is practically powerless to conserve the 

 forests without the aid of birds and other natural ene- 

 mies of insects and rodents. 



Birds Regulate Plant Growth. Many birds that 

 feed on seeds vie with the squirrels in distributing 

 seeds, and so rank high as forest planters. Others 

 prune the trees by nipping off buds. Still others regu- 

 late the increase of certain insects that otherwise would 

 prune the trees too closely, but that when controlled 

 by birds exert only a moderate beneficent, restraining 

 influence on the exuberance of plant growth. 



Woodpecker Family. First among the birds that 

 feed on wood-eating insects is the woodpecker family. 

 This family comprises a highly specialized group of 

 birds, the more typical of which are especially fitted 

 for digging into the trunks and limbs of trees and ex- 

 tracting ants and other wood-boring insects from their 

 hiding places. The utility of the woodpeckers is now 

 quite generally recognized by orchardists and forest- 

 ers, both here and abroad. The common Downy 

 Woodpecker of the Eastern United States is one of 

 the chief enemies of timber ants, wood-boring beetles 

 and moths, codling moths and certain plant lice and 

 scale insects. 



Nuthatches and Chickadees. The nuthatches and 

 the titmice or chickadees are nearly, if not quite, as im- 

 portant as the woodpeckers, for they feed very largely 

 on destructive insects that hide in crevices in the bark, 

 in holes or cavities or burrow within the buds, twigs or 

 fruit. The common chickadee is one of the most 

 serviceable of all. The woodpeckers, nuthatches and 



