80 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the bii'd-house, erected for the acconiinodution of the purple martin, a 

 quart of wing cases of the cucumber bug, (Galeruca vitfatcu) a most de- 

 structive insect, and which rears several broods in a single summer. The 

 warblers which visit us in the time of the aiiple blossoming, and of M'hicli 

 the summer yellow bird (Sylvia ccstivd) is a resident with us, the gar- 

 den wren, the humming bird, some of the smaller sparrows, others that 

 are seed eating even, are more especially insect devourers and should be 

 looked upon with favor. The red-eyed vireo is another which shoidd be 

 added to the list, and later the chickadee and the brown creeper, are our 

 fast and trusty friends. These smaller birds are the sure prey to worth- 

 less cats, and are liable to annoyance by thoughtless children who wan- 

 tonly rob or break down the nests. 



Dr. Brewer, who speaks feelingly on this topic, from injury received 

 by the predatory character of the feline race, has suggested that the at- 

 tention of horticulturists should be turned in this direction. Indeed 

 while the questionable utility of dogs submit their owners to an annual 

 tax, and thus to a practical license to keep them, a similar tax should 

 be imposed on cats, which any one favorably disposed towards the race, 

 viewing them as rat-catchers or family pets, would be willing, or ought 

 to be willing to pay. Others, not collared or marked as licensed, would 

 become vermin, and at once submitted to such treatment as to diminish 

 their numbers and save our birds. 



A few winter birds, such as the woodpeckers, come in for a thought; 

 and as to the actual value of the croM% the article of Mr. E. A. Samuels, 

 in the American Journal of Horticulture, could be read by profit for its 

 suggestions and facts. 



A word on the delay of your Committee in making their Eeporl. 

 Your Chairman received from the Corresponding Secretary a vote passed 

 by the Society on the 8th of September, to the efiect that the Committee 

 be instructed to report on or before the lirst day of December. On re- 

 ceipt of this vote, September 17th, I notified the several members, desir- 

 inf^ to obtain from them any new facts, or any information that they 

 micht wish to communicate to the Society in the report. To this request 

 I received only two answers, one from W. C. Strong, Avho declares him- 

 self against the robin, feeling as he does, that its rapacious appetite for 

 fruit, and the destruction of it by right as it were on its part, lays the 

 cultivator under the necessity of resort to the gun. The other from Dr. 

 Brewer, whose views are embodied in this report. 



Hoping that the action of the Society will lead it to a liberal and ju- 

 dicious course, and begging to be excused from any further considera- 

 tion of a topic I am unfit to decide upon. 



I am very respectfully, &c., 



JOHN L. RUSSELL. 



