70 USEFUL BIRDS. 



that birds were feeding on tlie locusts until Professor Aughey 

 called their attention to this fact by articles published in the 

 press. 



Birds are doing the same kind of work in Massachusetts 

 to-day, in repressing smaller out])reaks of common insects. 

 Had we more observing people to record such services, their 

 amount and variety probably would astound us. Professor 

 Beal saw a family of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks clear the potato 

 beetles from a potato patch of about one-fourth of an acre. 

 Mr. E. "W. Wood of West Newton, a well-known horticultur- 

 ist, informed me that during one season, when the spring can- 

 kerworms {Paleacrita vernata) became quite numerous in his 

 orchard, a pair of Baltimore Orioles appeared, built a nest 

 near by, and fed daily upon the cankerworms. This they 

 continued to do assiduously ; by the time the young birds 

 were hatched, the numbers of the Avorms Avere considerably 

 reduced. The birds then redoubled their diligence, carry- 

 ing ten or eleven worms to the nest at once. Soon the 

 cankerworms had disappeared, and there has been no trouble 

 from them for many years. 



Instances were recorded during the first State campaign 

 against the gipsy moth, from 1890 to 1895, where small 

 isolated moth colonies appeared to have been suppressed 

 and even annihilated by birds. A serious outbreak was 

 discovered in Georgetown, Mass., in 1899. It had been in 

 existence for a long time, but its spread had evidently been 

 limited by the great number of birds that were feeding there 

 on all forms of the moth. Several months later the State 

 abandoned the work against the moth, and little hope was 

 entertained that anything more than a severe check had been 

 given the insect in Georgetown. Nevertheless, in the six 

 years that have since elapsed comparatively few moths have 

 been found in that localit}^ The most feasible explanation 

 of this seems to be that up to 1906 the birds have kept the 

 numbers of the moths below the point where they can do 

 appreciable injury. 



I have had several opportunities, within the last fifteen 

 years, to watch the checking of insect uprisings by birds. 

 One morning in the fall of 1904 I noticed in some poplar 



