SECRETARY'S REPORT. 105 



and destroy the worms. Through the season, probaljly ten 

 robins for one of all others thus molest him, and of scores of 

 these birds which he has opened and examined, none had any 

 fruit or berries in their stomachs — nothing but insects. It is to 

 be understood that this was not in a part of the summer when 

 berries were not ripe ; on the contrary, it was all through the 

 season. His land is surrounded with scrub-oaks and huckleberry 

 bushes. These latter were loaded with fruit, which was easier 

 of access to the birds than the worms, but none were found in 

 •them. He says they came from all quarters to destroy his silk- 

 worms, and gave him more trouble than all the other birds 

 together. He said that, in his opinion, if the birds were all 

 killed off, vegetation would be entirely destroyed. To test the 

 destructiveness of these marauders, as he regarded them, he 

 placed on a small scrub-oak near his door two thousand of his 

 silk-worms. (These, let me say, resemble, when small, very 

 closely the young caterpillar of the apple-tree moth.) In a very 

 few days they were all eaten by cat-birds and robins, (birds 

 closely allied, and of the same habits.) This was in the berry 

 season, when an abundance of this kind of food was easily acces- 

 sible, but they preferred his worms. Why ? Because the 

 yoimg of these, as well as those of most other birds, must be 

 fed on animal food. Earth-worms assist in the regimen ; but 

 how often can birds like the robin, cat-bird, thrush, &c., get 

 these ? Any farmer knows that when the surface of the ground 

 is dry they go to the sub-soil, out of the reach of birds ; and it is 

 not necessary here to say what proportion of the time the 

 ground is very dry through the summer. Caterpillars, grubs of 

 various kinds, and insects therefore constitute the chief food of 

 these birds ; and of these, caterpillars and grubs being the most 

 abundant, and most easily caught, of course furnish the larger 

 proportion. 



I will show, shortly, that by the observations of eminent 

 scientific men it has been proved that such is the fact. The 

 thrushes seem designed by nature to rid the surface of the soil 

 of noxious insects not often pursued by most other birds. The 

 warblers capture the insects that prey on the foliage of the 

 trees ; the fly-catchers seize these insects as they fly from the 

 trees ; the swallows capture those that have escaped all these ; 

 the woodpeckers destroy them when in the larv^ state in the 



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