VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 89 



Such are the materials, together with the notes of the authors, 

 from which the following catalogue has been compiled. As has 

 been already intimated, it is the hope of the authors that it may 

 in the not too distant future be followed by a more complete list. 

 Now that an ornithological club has been organized in our State, 

 the avowed object of which is the study of the bird life of the 

 State, and the protection of all useful species, it is surely not too 

 much to expect that the next few years will add far more to our 

 knowledge of the feathered inhabitants of this region than has 

 come to us from a much longer period in the past. 



The Yermont Ornithological Club is organized not only for 

 the study, but also for the protection of birds. This latter is a 

 more important matter than is always realized. Everyone knows 

 that birds, many of them at least, eat a great number of insects. 

 Everyone knows that there are a great many insects which, if not 

 themselves eaten, are sure to eat a great deal of valuable vegeta- 

 tion. But everyone does not connect these two important facts. 

 Very few, it is to be feared, appreciate how universally it is true 

 that birds are important allies upon which the agriculturist 

 must depend in his constant warfare against his insect foes. 



Leaving aside the water birds as on the whole neither helpful 

 nor otherwise, and the larger birds of prey, it may be safely as- 

 serted that very few of the birds mentioned in the following list 

 are not to a greater or less extent useful insect destroyers. Some 

 also attack fruit or other vegetation, but even these, of which the 

 common Robin may be taken as a type, do far more good than 

 harm. I have no doubt that during the recent years when the 

 forest caterpillar was devastating our maple and other trees the 

 birds were an important ally in the destruction of these pests. 

 Many birds, as Chickadees, Nuthatches, Chipping Birds, Orioles, 

 Yireos, Cedar Birds and a number of other species, were known 

 to eat the caterpillars. This is but a single example which might 

 be many times duplicated. The more carefully birds are studied, 

 and by this means their real habits more fully and accurately 

 understood, the more useful they are found to be. 



Even such generally disliked birds as the Crow are found, as 

 their whole life is known, to do no little good, and while in this 

 case and others like it we may not be ready to assert that the 

 popular impression is wholly erroneous, yet we may say that it is 

 certainly not wholly correct. It is undoubtedly true that if in 

 any locality a considerable portion of the commonly resident 

 birds were destroyed or driven away the ravages of plant eating 

 insects would be so increased as to be quite unendurable. 



The nomenclature used by the American Ornithologists Union 

 has been followed. 



The fauna of Yermont is somewhat mixed. The Canadian 

 species come down from the north and mingle with southern 

 forms. Characteristic of the northern fauna are the Crossbills, 



