No. 4.] BIRDS AS PROTECTORS OF ORCHARDS. 359 



Crow (Oorvus americanus) , chickadee (^JParus atricapil- 

 lus), oriole [Icterus galhula), red-eyed vireo (Vireo oliva- 

 ceus), yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), black- 

 billed cuckoo ( Ooccyzus erythrophthalrnvs) , chipping sparrow 

 ( Spizetta socialis), yellow warbler (Dendroica cestiva). 



During the month of May an attempt was made to render 

 the place as attractive to birds as possible. The under- 

 growth, which previous to 1894 had been trimmed out, was 

 afterward allowed to grow, and in 1895 several low thickets 

 had been thus formed ; the mulberry-trees were stimulated 

 by judicious pruning, and bore a considerable crop of early 

 fruit which ripened in advance of the cherries, thus draw- 

 ing the attention of the fruit-eating birds away from the 

 cherries, as well as serving to attract them to the vicinity of 

 the orchard. Ten nesting-boxes were put up for the wrens 

 and bluebirds ; but as the bluebirds were very rare this 

 season, none came to the orchard. Two families of wrens, 

 however, were reared in the boxes in place of one family 

 last year. Nesting materials — strings, hair and straw — 

 were hung in the trees and scattered about. Several ma- 

 rauding cats were killed, and an attempt was made to keep 

 nest-hunting boys away from the neighborhood as much as 

 possible. Thirty-six nests of birds were discovered in the 

 neighborhood, as follows : — 



Three red-eyed vireos, ten robins, four Baltimore ori- 

 oles, three cuckoos, five chipping sparrows, three least fly- 

 catchers, two redstarts, two yellow warblers, two chicka- 

 dees, two house wrens. 



Of these all but three were destroyed, probably by boys, 

 the nests being torn down and the eggs missing. The three 

 which escaped destruction were two wrens' nests which had 

 been built in boxes upon buildings, and a robin's nest in a 

 maple-tree within ten feet of a chamber window. This 

 wholesale destruction of nests discouraged several pairs of 

 birds, and they disappeared from the neighborhood. Those 

 remaining built new nests, and after a second or third at- 

 tempt a few succeeded in rearing young. One nest of ori- 

 oles escaped the general destruction, and the birds Were 

 busy for a long time carrying canker-worms to their young. 



