No. 4.] KKPOKT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 345 



such poii^on, would seem to be great wherever arsenate of 

 lead is used extensively and in great strength. Theoretically, 

 this seems to be the greatest danger to which bi^-ds have been 

 exposed by spraying. Nevertheless, certain species might 

 consume arsenic by eating foliage or grass npon which the 

 s])ray had fallen, or by drinking water contaminated by it. 



Since the extensive spraj'ing operations of the past year 

 have begun, circumstantial evidence seeming to bear out the 

 above assumption has been accumulating. The writer called 

 attention to the matter for the first time in " Useful birds and 

 their protection," in the following words: " Dead birds have 

 been picked up in different localities soon after orchard or 

 shade trees have been sprayed. ]\Ir. Kobert Ridg-way no- 

 ticed that birds decreased very much in numbers in a section 

 of Illinois where practically all the farmers began spraying 

 their orchards ; but in a recent letter he expresses some donbt 

 whether the sjiraying, or a bounty crusade against the spar- 

 rows, caused the diminution of the birds. The reduction of 

 birds in such cases may perhaps be explained by the fact that 

 the insects have been destroyed by spraying, this leaving the 

 birds without food."^ 



Since the above was written, the Cambridge ornithologist, 

 ^li-. William Brewster, has informed me that in the past 

 three summers, during which spraying has been continued 

 in Cambridge, nearly all the orioles have disappeared. He 

 also says that on his own estate the cuckoos and vireos have 

 mostly vanished, as well as some of the warblers. He asserts 

 that he also noticed a similar decrease of birds about his 

 farm in Concord after the spraying of 1908. His attention 

 was first called to the apparent destruction of birds by spray- 

 ing when several years ago the street trees in Lancaster, 

 Mass., were s])rayed for the elm-leaf beetle. Many birds 

 which were singing in the trees when the spraying began 

 soon became silent and disappeared. Six were picked np 

 dead two days afterward. When spraying became general 

 in Cambridge, three years ago, Mr. Brewster asserts that 

 redstarts had been increasing there for twenty years. Just 



• Forhush, E. H., "Useful birds and their protection," Massachusetts State Board of 

 Agriculture. 1907, pp. SCO, 361. 



