No. 1.] HEPORT OF STATE ORNITIIOLOGLST. 337 



some of the outdoor experimental work that had been in- 

 tended. Some of this work should be undertaken the coming 

 year. 



TuK Xkckssity of Field Wokk and Expekiments fok the 

 Inoeease and Protection of Birds. 



Tlie Increase of Insect Pests. 



The alarmirig increase of such introduced pests as the 

 gypsy moth, the brown-tail moth, the San Jose scale and the 

 elm-leaf beetle continues. Every possible means which may 

 lessen in any degree the multiplication of these pests should 

 ])e encouraged. Already Congress and the Legislatures of the 

 New England States have appropriated nearly $3,000,000 

 for the control of the brown-tail and gypsy moths, and prob- 

 ably over three-quarters of a million dollars are now being 

 expended annually by government. States, municipalities and 

 individual land owners, in the attempt to control these insects. 



ISTotwithstandiug all this vast expenditure, the brown-tail 

 moth is rapidly increasing and is spreading to the north and 

 east, while the gypsy moth is not fully under control except 

 perhaps in the States of Connecticut and Rhode Island. This 

 statement is made with no intention of criticising those en- 

 gaged in government, State or municipal work for the sup- 

 pression of these insects. Doubtless they have done their 

 best ; certainly some improvements in methods have been 

 made, which are capable of producing greater results for 

 the money expended than ever before, but the work is not 

 keeping pace with the rise and spread of the insects. When 

 our State work was resumed against the gypsy moth, in 

 1905, no one knew how far the insect had extended its range 

 during the previous five-year cessation of repressive work by 

 the State. No one knows to-day! The State and govern- 

 ment authorities are still inspecting the territory, to learn 

 how far the gypsy moth has been disseminated. We already 

 know that the region now infested in New Hampshire is as 

 largo as was the knowni infested territory in ]\rnssachusetts 

 in the year 1000, and that all this New rTampshire infesta- 

 tion occurred after the Legislature of Massachusetts, ignor- 



