32 



so that, so far as could be seen, their presence in the garden 

 had little or no effect on the vegetables. These birds were 

 much of the time engaged in killing caterpillars of many species. 

 They were so assiduous in this that no serious injury was done 

 by caterpillars to any of the trees near by. Even the wild 

 cherry trees, which are ordinarily stripped by the tent cater- 

 pillar, were left intact. The vireos are probably among the 

 most efficient caterpillar hunters. The illustration showing 

 the red-eyed vireo feeding her young (Fig. 8) is introduced 

 here to show how the parent bird inserts her bill into the throat 

 of the newly hatched young, and thrusts the food down into 

 the gullet. This may be a necessary precaution some days 

 later, for the living caterpillars then fed sometimes crawl out 

 of the mouths of the young birds, and escape. 



Blackbirds, brown thrushes and towhees kept well away 

 from the house the first season. Dogs, cats and boys evidently 

 had made them distrustful of the neighborhood. A little grain 

 scattered about, in the spring of 1902, brought several black- 

 birds and a pair of brown thrashers. The blackbirds soon 

 became quite tame, and remained about the place until, late in 

 May, they retired to the meadow to breed. The brown thrashers 

 came to the dooryard all summer, in search of crumbs and 

 fragments of grain, and finally became quite tame. Neither 

 these birds nor the towhees seemed to be attracted to the garden, 

 although the towhees came into it much during the late summer. 

 These birds are all useful in the garden, provided they can be 

 induced to frequent it. None of them injured anything in it, 

 except that the towhees picked up a few ripe gooseberries. 

 Some of the birds which are known to be conspicuously useful 

 in the garden did not stay with us, although they were occa- 

 sionally heard singing in the early spring. 



Those who have followed me thus far may begin to sur- 

 mise that for some reason birds were not exceptionally numer- 

 ous in this locality, so well fitted for their homes; such indeed 

 is the case, and the reason is not far to seek. Birds have been 

 protected here to some extent for years, so far as the encroach- 

 ments of the gunner are concerned, but their natural enemies 

 have greatly increased in the mean time. All the swallows 

 and most of the bluebirds have been driven away from the 



