THE APPLE MOTH. 1 13 



fulness of birds, by Wilson Flagg. Of the many contributions to the history of 

 birds, I have met with none so interesting as this. Some French investigators have 

 made elaborate reports within a few years on this subject ; but the birds of Europe 

 are so different from ours that such reports can give us little practical information, 

 unless accompanied with illustrations, and especially showing the form of the beak 

 of each species. 



To make such a work as this complete, requires more exact and positive 

 knowledge than could be procured from any of these sources ; andv I have killed a 

 very large number of birds and examined the contents of their stomachs, especially 

 of those frequenting orchards. Most of these examinations have been made with a 

 magnifying glass, and many with the microscope. Some species I have shot at short 

 intervals during the season, to know how far their food varied at different times ; and 

 I have thus ascertained that the contents of the stomach at any one time are not an 

 infallible criterion by which we can determine the usual food of that bird. On the 

 fifth of May, 1864, I shot seven different birds; they had all been feeding freely on 

 small beetles, and some of them on nothing else. There was a great flight of these 

 small beetles that day; the atmosphere was teeming with them. A few days after the 

 air was filled with ephemera flies, and the same species of birds were then feeding 

 upon these. 



The killing of so many birds has been a most repugnant task ; but I have 

 nerved myself to it in the cause of science. I felt there was a want of such infor- 

 mation, and once procured it could not be wanted again. The comparatively few 

 thus sacrificed would become martyrs for the good of the many. Many of these 

 investigations have been of surpassing interest, from the consciousness that such 

 knowledge, if properly disseminated, would create a public sentiment even stronger 

 than law, for the protection of the birds. 



I have found in the Baltimore Oriole the remains of Curculios, the real plum 

 weevils. The Downy Woodpecker and the Chick-a-dee eat the caterpillar of the 

 Apple Moth. The Oriole, Wren, and Cat-bird know how to find the leaf-curling 

 caterpillars in their places of concealment, and thus protect our orchard and garden 

 trees and shrubbery from much deformity. The Cedar birds come in flocks for the 

 span-worms. Even the Bob-o'-link does not perch himself on our apple trees exclu- 

 sively to show off his fine feathers or charm us with his unpronounceable music, but 



