THE APPLE MOTH. 11^ 



is shown in Fig. 7 of this Plate), and has been selected for this work by a friend who 

 is a most accomplished ornithologist. 



The bird that knows how to find this formidable enemy of the fruit-grower, and 

 destroys it in such numbers, is an object of special interest, and a scientific account 

 in a work like this becomes a necessity, that it may be positively identified. 



DOWNY WOODPECKER. April 8. In shooting a Robin to-day, on an Apple tree, 

 I started one of these little birds. It flew to the next tree, and I secured it with the 

 other barrel. This was the first of this species of bird I had been able to approach in 

 the orchards near the city. The stomach contained one larva of an Apple Moth so 

 nearly entire as to be easily identified. The other contents of the stomach were the 

 remains of small beetles, some of which had those brilliant metallic hues so difficult 

 to describe and so impossible to imitate by paint. The head of one of these, under 

 the microscope, equalled in lustre the diamond beetle. No seeds or sand, and no 

 signs of sap or the sap bark of the Apple tree could be discovered. 



April 21. In a ramble to-day on the borders of the Passaic River, some ten or 

 twelve miles from Newark, where the birds are more plentiful and not so wild as 

 nearer the cities, I shot another of these Downy Woodpeckers. The stomach con- 

 tained one beetle, the heads oft/ie larva of two Apple Moths, and the heads of the grubs 

 of three small Borers. The bird, when first seen, was pecking or sounding an old 

 fence post, and then flew to an Apple tree. There was an orchard of some twenty or 

 thirty old Apple trees here. 



May 3. Shot another Downy Woodpecker to-day. It had been eating several 

 black beetles, and three grubs, but they were not the larvae of the Apple Moth. 



Aug. 5. CROOKED LAKE, Tates County, New Tork. The bird that knows how to 

 find the Apple Worm under the scales of bark on the trees, has been here. I find 

 the unmistakable mark the round hole in the scale leading directly into the place 

 where the worm had been in its cocoon. The parallel lines of holes are on the Apple 

 trees here also. 



Nov. 6. In a ramble in the country to-day I saw a couple of Downy Wood- 

 peckers. I watched them for some time, but could see nothing in their actions to 

 indicate how they found the Apple Worms under the scales of bark. 



Nov. 10, 1 1, and 12. -During an excursion in the upper part of Morris County, 



15 



