No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 201 



a catch. In case native birds enter a trap they may be released 

 without harm. Trapping may begin at any time after young spar- 

 rows are able to take care of themselves, which is usually by July 1. 

 Each day's catch should be removed from, the trap at nightfall, and 

 if a decoy is used it should be comfortably housed and otherwise 

 cared for when off duty. 



In removing sparrows from either a funnel or a sieve trap the 

 receiving box shown in Fig. 9 will be found useful. It should be 

 about 6 inches square and 18 inches long, inside measurement. The 

 door, hinged at the bottom and turning inward, is controlled by the 

 part of its wire frame extending through the side of the box to form 

 a handle. The box as it appears in the figure is ready to be placed 

 before the open door of a trap from which birds are to be driven. 



Mr. Charles W. Miller, director of the Worthington 

 Society for the Study of Bird Life, has perfected an excellent 

 trap for sparrows which has been very snecessful, but as its 

 construction is more complicated and its manufacture more 

 expensive than that of the funnel trap, those who desire to 

 try it are referred to Farmer's Bulletin 493, in which it is 

 illustrated and described. 



The Cedar Waxwing and the Elm-leaf Beetle. 

 One of the most beneficial of all orchard birds is the cedar 

 waxwing, sometimes called the cherry bird. In the summer 

 of 1911 I visited an apple orchard where the leaves were 

 already somewhat riddled by cankerworms and swarms of 

 these insects were seen everywhere on the trees. A large 

 flock of cedar waxwings remained about this orchard for 

 many days, and eventually destroyed nearly all the canker- 

 worms so that the leaves and the fruit were saved. Among 

 our native birds the cedar waxwing is probably the greatest 

 foe of the elm-leaf beetle (Galerucella luteola). An item in 

 one of the papers of western Massachusetts, published in the 

 summer of 1911, stated that flocks of rare birds were feeding 

 on elm-leaf beetles. Mr. J. M. Van Huyck of Lee informs 

 me that the birds were cedar waxwings which are very likely 

 to appear in numbers where destructive insects are at work 

 on the trees, and which in some cases have absolutely cleared 

 the trees of this pest. There is a great prejudice against this 



