Xo. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 103 



eluded to reset the tract with new vines in 1915 and see what 

 happened. The vines were set and almost immediately num- 

 bers of robins were seen at work upon the tract. They dug 

 into the sand with their beaks and pulled out the grubs. In 

 a few cases the roots of the vines were cut off by the grubs, 

 and these vines the robins pulled up, discarded and dug out 

 the grubs. The robins worked so diligently that practically 

 no grubs escaped. A few that had come to maturity emerged 

 from the sand as beetles and disappeared, but apparently the 

 birds got all the rest, and as a result the vines set this year 

 nearly all survived. No other bird except the robin w^as seen 

 to attack these grubs, though others may have done so. 



Cedar Waxwings. 



J. M. Stone of Greenwich, Massachusetts, whites that he 

 has succeeded in attracting cedar waxwings, and that they 

 stay through the year. He puis out cotton string, tears up 

 cotton cloth for them for nesting material and keeps w^ater out 

 for them. They have kept down the elm-leaf beetle to a con- 

 siderable extent. He has seen them prejdng on the beetles by 

 the hundred. Sometimes 20 or 30 birds alight on a limb and 

 stay there five or ten minutes, and they keep going through 

 the trees taking the beetles from the limbs and leaves. 



This note corroborates the observations of others, some of 

 which have been recorded in previous reports, and all of which 

 go to show that the cedar waxwing or cherry bird is very 

 destructive to the elm-leaf beetle. 



Red-eyed Vireo. 



William R. Lord of Dover reports two trees cleared of the 



gypsy moth by a family of red-eyed vireos. The process was 



carefully watched by him personally. Jays, cuckoos, orioles, 



robins and some other species are equally useful in this respect. 



Injurious Local Habits of Birds. 

 Birds which generally are beneficial sometimes become in- 

 jurious locally, either from peculiar local conditions or by 

 acquired habits. 



