No. 4.] NATURE'S FORESTERS. 289 



of their foliage. But soon the young of the resident birds 

 are hatching, and they require an enormous amount of insect 

 food. Thrushes, sparrows, swallows, flycatchers, warblers, 

 wrens, cuckoos, titmice, blackbirds, jays and many other 

 birds of the forest, orchard, pasture, field and meadow all 

 repair to the grove, where food is so plentiful and so easily 

 obtained. Soon the destruction of the caterpillars is doubled, 

 as the young birds, fully fledged, are led by their parents to 

 these favorable spots. The trees in some localities have now 

 been almost entirely denuded of their foliage, and stretch out 

 their bare arms as if in supplication for deliverance. Their 

 branches are festooned with the webs and threads spun by 

 feeding worms. Many of the insects have pupated, and 

 some have emerged from the chrysalis, but the birds are still 

 busy among the desolated woods. Sparrows, thrushes, 

 cuckoos, jays and crows are hopping among the branches or 

 upon the ground, picking up, killing and devouring the 

 caterpillars or tearing open the cocoons. Flycatchers are 

 flitting about among the trees, catching the flying moths. 

 Titmice are searching in the crevices for eggs. The young 

 of the grouse, quail, towhee and thrush are fed largely upon 

 insects on or near the ground. They destroy vast quantities 

 of these during the summer. 



Now look more closely, and you will see that injurious 

 insects have other though smaller foes. Ichneumon flies are 

 thrusting their sting-like ovipositors into the bodies of the 

 caterpillars. Beetles of the genus Calosoma are climbing 

 the trees in search of caterpillars, others of the genus Har- 

 palus are destroying caterpillars and pupa? on the ground. 

 Strange bugs are piercing them with trenchant proboscis. 

 At night, mice and squirrels, whip-poor-wills and bats come 

 to the feast, while the quavering note of the screech-owl is 

 heard intermittently between his lepidopteran meals. As 

 summer grows into fall, the warblers sweep through the 

 woods, bringing with them their young, and taking toll, as 

 they go, from the insect pests. In the season of the falling 

 leaves, the sparrows, thrushes, crows and jays are busy 

 destroying many of the tree enemies that have been left by 

 the summer visitors. As the leaves fall and the snow comes, 

 the woods appear almost deserted ; but here and there a 



