27 



small portion of their food consisted of the early gnats which were 

 flying on bright sunny days. In early April they had nearly de- 

 serted the meat, although they still frequented the orchard in 

 search of the female canker-worm moths. They seemed to prefer 

 animal food to all other, and even in cold weather would hardly 

 notice grain or seeds of any kind, though one individual ate a few 

 oat kernels which were placed near his accustomed feed of meat. 



Towards the last of April the English or house sparrow (Passer 

 domesticus) began to make its appearance in the vicinity and ap- 

 parently drove the chickadees to the woods, as they disappeared 

 and did not nest in the orchard, but remained in the woods, where 

 they paired and nested. 



I believe that the English sparrow is largely responsible for the 

 fact that chickadees are not now found nesting in our orchards. 

 Though they still nest in the orchards on the remoter farms and in 

 the villages where the English sparrow is not numerous, they seem 

 to have disappeared in summer from orchards near cities. At the 

 time of the advent of the sparrow in this locality, twenty-five years 

 ago, chickadees were often found nesting in old apple-trees in the 

 orchards in this region where now scarcely any are to be seen in 

 orchards during the summer. 



In the latter part of April and in early May the tent caterpillars 

 made their appearance on the apple and cherry trees in the neigh- 

 borhood. Canker-worms were also numerous on the apples and 

 elms and appeared in some of the other trees. It was noticed, 

 however, that while trees in neighboring orchards were seriously 

 infested with canker-worms and to a less degree with tent cater- 

 pillars, those in the orchard which had been frequented by the 

 chickadees during the winter and spring were not seriously in- 

 fested and that comparatively few of the worms and caterpillars 

 were to be found there. 



With the warm south winds of May, many summer birds came 

 and settled in the neighborhood, and prepared to build their nests, 

 among which the following were seen : chickadee (Parus atri- 

 ccqnllus), tree sparrow (Spizella movticola) , crow (Corvtis ameri- 

 canus), purple grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), flicker (Colaptes 

 auratus), red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoenicetis) , robin 

 (Merula migratoria) , chipping sparrow (Sjnzella socialis), oven- 

 bird (Seiurus aurocapillus), wood thrush {Turdvs mustelinus) , 

 catbird {Galeoscoptes carolinerisis) , brown thrasher (HarporhyncJins 

 rufus), black-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus erythrophthabnus) , yellow- 

 billed cuckoo {Coccyzus americaims) ^ black and white warbler 

 {MniotUta varia)., yellow warbler (Dendroica cestiva), chestnut- 

 sided warbler (Dendroica j^ennsylvanica) , black-throated green war- 



