632 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



number of colonies of this very useful 

 bird. The boxes should be at a reason- 

 able height, say 15 feet from the ground, 

 and made inaccessible to cats. A colony 

 of these birds on a farm makes great in- 

 roads upon the insect population, as the 

 birds not only themselves feed upon in- 

 sects but rear their young upon the same 

 diet. Fifty years ago in New England it 

 was not uncommon to see colonies of 50 

 pairs of martins, but most of them have 

 now vanished for no apparent reason ex- 

 cept that the martin houses have de- 

 cayed and have not been renewed. More 

 than three-fourths of this bird's food con- 

 sists of wasps, bugs, and beetles, their 

 importance being in the order given. The 

 beetles include several species of harmful 

 weevils, as the clover-leaf weevils and the 

 nut weevils. Besides these are many 

 crane flies, moths. May flies, and dragon 

 flies. 



Black-Headed Grosbeak 

 ZameJodia melanocephala 



Length, about eight and one-fourth 

 inches. 



Range 



Breeds from the Pacific coast to Ne- 

 braska and the Dakotas, and from South- 

 ern Canada to Southern Mexico; winters 

 in Mexico. 



Habits and Economic Statns 



The black-headed grosbeak takes the 

 place in the West of the rosebreast in the 

 East, and like it is a fine songster. Like 

 it also the blackhead readily resorts to 

 orchards and gardens and is common in 

 agricultural districts. The bird has a 

 very jjowerful bill and easily crushes or 

 cuts into the firmest fruit. It feeds upon 

 cherries, apricots and other fruits, and 

 also does some damage to green peas and 

 beans, but it is so active a foe of certain 

 horticultural pests that we can afford to 

 overlook its faults. Several kinds of 

 scale insects are freely eaten, and one, 

 the black olive scale, constitutes a fifth 

 of the total food. In May many canker 

 worms and codling moths are consumed, 

 and almost a sixth of the bird's seasonal 

 food consists of flower beetles, which do 

 incalculable damage to cultivated flowers 

 and to ripe fruit. For each quart of 



fruit consumed by the black-headed gros- 

 beak it destroys in actual bulk more than 

 one and one-half quarts of black olive 

 scales and one quart of flower beetles, 

 besides a generous quantity of codling 

 moth pupae and cankerworms. It is 

 obvious that such work as this pays many 

 times over for the fruit destroyed. 



Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 



Zamelodia ludoviciana 

 Length, eight inches. 



Range 



Breeds from Kansas. Ohio, Georgia 

 (mountains), and New Jersey, north to 

 Southern Canada: winters from Mexico 

 to South America. 



Habits and Economic Statns 



This beautiful grosbeak is noted for its 

 clear, melodious notes, which are poured 

 forth in generous measure. The rose- 

 breast sings even at midday during sum- 

 mer, when the intense heat has silenced 

 almost every other songster. Its beauti- 

 ful plumage and sweet song are not its 

 sole claim on our favor, for few birds 

 are more beneficial to agriculture. The 

 rosebreast eats some green peas and does 

 some damage to fruit. But this mischief 

 is much more than balanced by the de- 

 struction of insect pests. The bird is so 

 fond of the Colorado potato beetle that it 

 has earned the name of "potato-bug 

 bird." and no less than a tenth of the 

 total food of the rosebreasts examined 

 consists of potato beetles — evidence that 

 the bird is one of the most important 

 enemies of the pest. It vigorously at- 

 tacks cucumber beetles and many of the 

 scale insects. It proved an active enemy 

 of the Rocky Mountain locust during that 

 insect's ruinous invasions, and among 

 the other pests it consumes are the 

 spring and fall cankerworms. orchard and 

 forest tent caterpillars, tussock, gipsy and 

 brown-tail moths, plum curculio, army 

 worm and chinch bug. In fact, not one 

 of our birds has a better record. 



Song Sparrow 



Melospiza melodia 

 Length, about six and one-fourth 

 inches. The heavily spotted breast with 

 heavy central blotch is characteristic. 



