36 



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 Galosoma are climbing the trees in search of 

 caterpillars, others of the genus Ilarimlus are destroying caterpil- 

 lars and pupa? on the ground. Strange bugs are piercing them 

 with trenchant proboscis. At night, mice and squirrels, Avhip- 

 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 de- 

 serted ; but here and there a party of titmice will be found, and 

 a few woodpeckers, nuthatches, kinglets and jays remain about 

 the woods all winter. These birds, feeding largely upon the hiber- 

 nating insects and their eggs, deposited on the bark or in its 

 crevices, are enabled during the winter months to destroy far more 

 insects, either dormant or in embryo, than the same number of 

 birds can dispose of in summer. 



AVhen the snow comes, the hares and mice, driven by hunger, 

 gnaw the bark of the young trees. As these animals are very 

 prolific, they would cause great havoc in the woods, especially 

 among the younger trees, were it not for the solemn owl, who sits 

 alone, and from his watch-tower in some old pine looks down more 

 in sorrow than in anger, and gathers them into his larder. It is 

 remarkable how many hares, mice and other small animals a large 

 owl will destroy in winter. The owls are also liberal providers 

 for their young. I once found in the nest of a great horned owl 

 {Bubo Virginianus) two young owls less than three days old, and 

 lying beside them, and partially covering them with the fur, were 

 the hind quarters of a hare. In the nest of a barred owl (Syrnium 

 nebulosum) in Woburu there was found the greater part of a hare 

 and several other small animals, which apparently had been pro- 

 vided as food for two very young owls. Owls as a class are 

 among the most useful birds. They destroy great quantities of 

 insects, as well as numbers of field mice, but comparatively few 

 birds and poultry. The fox is another great destroyer of mice 

 and hares, and is not therefore by any means an unmixed evil. 



Let us go back now to the western forests, where man has not 

 yet disturbed nature, and observe the sequence of nature's forestry. 

 In this untrodden wilderness, trees which have outlived their use- 



