44 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



feathers, which looks like a bit of sealing wax. This is only 

 apparent in the mature birds. It does not come in the first 

 year. The Cedar birds are also called Cherry birds, and they 

 are looked upon with great disfavor because they come in cherry 

 time. They are said to eat a great many cherries and so are 

 shot, but their food is largely animal. Out of one hundred and 

 fifty stomachs that were examined only nine had any traces of 

 cherries, and the food is as a whole entirely of noxious insects, 

 caterpillars, grasshoppers, spiders, and the elm leaf beetle ; it 

 is particularly valuable in destroying that beetle. Mrs. Mary 

 True speaks of one village where the elm trees had sufiered to a 

 o-reat extent from the ravages of the elm leaf beetle, and after a 

 time a flock of Cedar birds came and destroyed the beetles, so 

 that the trees quite recovered ; and someone makes the calcula- 

 tion that twenty Cedar birds would destroy nine thousand worms 

 durin<J^ the season when the cutworm is exposed. They do 

 a great deal of good in destroying noxious insects. 



The Scarlet Tanager also is a very valuable bird. It is a 

 summer resident, and is very well known. Perhaps the female 

 is not so well known as the male. It shows clearly the protec- 

 tive coloring given the female. When the male is especially 

 bright, it always follows that the female is sure to be very dull 

 in color. If the females were colored like the males and they 

 were to build a nest and sit upon the eggs, the nest would 

 be quickly discovered by hawks above and man and boy below. 

 The Tanager is useful in destroying a great many weevils, wire- 

 worms, and the gipsy moth. 



The winter Grosbeak is one that comes occasionally. We 

 are not sure of it every winter, as the winter migrants are nmch 

 more uncertain than the summer ones. We can always know to 

 a day when the summer birds will come to us, but it seems of 

 great uncertainty when the winter birds will come to us. The 

 Pine Grosbeak is very fond of wild berries. Those that were 

 here two or three years ago were feeding upon the moun- 

 tain-ash berry, and the seeds of the maple, elm, and ash. They 

 are beautifully colored, and have a sweet rather plaintive note. 

 The summer Grosbeak, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, is particu- 



