98 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



destructive presence at Baltimore, Md. It 

 was a long time in reaching Lanoaster county, 

 and it will soon show what it can do, if human 

 means, or some inexplicable counteraction in 

 nature — to which the insect world is some- 

 times liable— does not.intervene to prevent it. 



In warring against insects, however, the 

 efforts should be simultaneous and continuous, 

 or else after you have destroyed those on your 

 own premises, you may be invaded by those 

 from the premises of your neighbors. 



This insect has been noticed by various 

 writers as the Galeritca cahnariensi.% but this 

 is a mistake. That species feeds on the leaves 

 of aquatic plants, and differs from it in other 

 respects. It is the Galeruca xanthomeelena of 

 Schon ; but no particular matter about its 

 name, it is its acts with which people have 

 now to do, and how to circumvent it. 



For a description of the insect, see The 

 Lancastek Farmer, vol. 8, page 131 ; and 

 if the reader has not the volume to refer to, 

 that may be his own fault ; but Ijy the ex- 

 penditure of a single dollar he may still obtain 

 that which in after years he will not be able 

 to procure for three times that amount. 



The pupa is a pale yellow in color. If a 

 few of these are collected and put into a small 

 box containing a little earth, in a week or 

 more the perfect insects will be evolved, and 

 such a sight is better than a description. 



THE ENGLISH SPARROW. 



It is wonderful how rapidly this bird is be- 

 coming discredited, in an economic sense, in 

 our country. It is true that tliere may still 

 linger a little rustic or romantic sentiment in 

 his behalf, but as a greedy gobbler up of in- 

 sects, as he was thought to be, people are gen- 

 erally losing conQdence in him. If ever 

 there was an opportunity for these birds to 

 establish a charaoier as elHoient insect scaven- 

 gers, or to redeem a tarnished one, that op- 

 portunity is just now. All over the city tlie 

 larva of the "elm-tree beetle" is present in 

 countless millions. The leaves are full of 

 them ; the branches are full ; the trunks are 

 full ; the pavements in the city, wherever 

 there is an elm tree, are full of them ; and yet 

 we have not observed a single sparrow where 

 these noxious insects are found. This may 

 seem strange, especially since the larva of the 

 elm beetles seems to be just such a tender 

 little morsel, as one would think ought to at- 

 tract any insectivorous bird. The sparrows 

 are everywhere, it appears, except where these 

 worms are. There are always plenty of them 

 in our streets, picking up any little morsels of 

 food that may be found there, but they do not 

 molest the elm-worms— not a bit of it. It is 

 therefore not to be wondered at, that people 

 are becoming impatient with them. 



On the western gable of Col. Fordney's resi- 

 dence, in East Orange street, is a large climb- 

 ing ivy, covering a large portion of the gable 

 from the ground to the roof, and in that ivy 

 there are a large number of sparrows' nests- 

 there may be fifty or more— and these birds 

 are fitting in and out of their nests "the 

 whole of the livelong day." We have fre- 

 quently taken a stand and watched them for 

 half an hour at a time. The elm trees are in 

 the neighborhood of their nests ; and although 

 when they sally forth they take various di- 

 rections (presumably in search of food for 

 their young), yet we have never noticed them 

 taking their course towards the elm trees 

 They readily take to the streets, people's 

 yards and gardens, where food seems to be 

 scarce, but the banquet of elm worms which 

 they might enjoy, they appear to utterly dis- 

 card. •' 



We indulge in no special prejudices against 

 the English sparrows— indeed, we have here- 

 tofore defended them, when we thought them 

 indiscriminately condemned. What we state 

 now are facts-deductions from personal ob- 

 servation. There are the elm-beetles, and 

 elsewhere are the sparrows, but not where the 

 beetles are. This is unfortunate, especiallv at 

 this time, when the beetles are so abunclant 

 and possess the possibilities of becoming more 

 80. Nothing but a sparrow or other insect- 



eating bird could successfully reach them 



while they are on the leaves of the trees, and 



if these won't, then we fear we will have to 



bear the effects of a severe infestation, before 



there is an end of the beetles. 

 Theoretically considered, we have often 



wondered who" was instrumental in first bring- 

 ing these birds into the country, and upon 



what particular characteristics." It is true, 



during the breeding season the softer insects, 



such as caterpillars and other iusect-larvse, 



may constitute at least a portion of the food 



they feed to their young, but under no rule of 



classification have they ever been assigned a 



place among insectivorous bird's. They belong 



to the great "Finch" family (Fringilidie), and 



are therefore classed among the Granivora or 



seed-eating birds. What are they constantly 



doing in our streets? and why do they seem 



to prefer the streets? Not at all because they 



are attracted there by insects, but because of 



the seeds or grains and fragments thereof, 



which they find among the animal droppings, 



sweepings, etc., etc. 

 The fault is not with the sparrows, for they 



are but acting in obedience to the instincts of 



their natures. As well might you persuade a 



duck to roost in a henhouse high up among 



the gallinaceous fowls, or a hen to habitually 



"go in swimming" along with her ducklings, 



as to change the character of a granivorous 



or frugivorous bird, to that of an insectivorous 



one. There may be temporary departures 



from their normal habits under stress of cir- 

 cumstances, but when left in freedom they 



will ultimately revert to their first estate. 



These birds" must have existed before there 

 were such places as streets, and gardens, and 

 kitchen yards, but with the progress of human 

 improvement they have so far departed from 

 their normal habits as to prefer such places; 

 not on account of the insects found there, but 

 because of the more abundant supply of vege- 

 table food; and their further demoralization 

 has been brought about by human indulgence. 

 People are in the habit of feeding them con- 

 stantly, especially during the winter, and 

 hence they concentrate in towns and villages 

 rather than in the open country. People ad- 

 mire them for their pugnacity, or for their 

 confidential and social characters. Many fam- 

 ilies have cherished them and fed them all 

 winter, and the birds have repaid them in the 

 spring, not by destroying the insects that in- 

 fest their premises, but by picking the fruit- 

 buds off their fruit trees. We have alluded 

 to their pugnacity, which they have carried 

 to the exclusion of our native sparrows and 

 other birds from localities where they once 

 abounded, if not abundantly, at least more 

 plentifully than they are found now. Our 

 native birds have almost entirely retired from 

 their old haunts, and have resigned the field 

 to tliese impudent "carpetbaggers," indisgust. 

 Sometime ago. we noticed a poor lone little 

 native sparrow sitting on a high post mourn- 

 fully overlooking Lancaster, something like a 

 lone Indian overlooking the innovations of the 

 white man. How similar their fates. 



THE COW BUNTING AND ITS HABITS. 



Mr. Casper Weaver, ofNorth Queen street, 

 on Wednesday morning, July 2nd, captured a 

 full fledged "cow bunting" (Molothrus pecoris] 

 in his garden, and has it now in a cage hang- 

 ing under the tree whereon was the parent 

 nest of the foster mother of the bird. 

 Its Name and Habitat. 



This bird is known in various localities by 

 different names ; such, for instance, as cow- 

 bird, cow-pen-bird, cow-blackbird, &c. It is 

 by no means a rare bird, for there is perhaps 

 not a State or Territory in our whole Union 

 in which it is not found; but wlierever it is 

 localized, it has the same peculiar, selfish and 

 unpaternal character. 



Its Peculiar Habit. 



Like the cuckoo of Europe, the female 

 never builds a nest, never incubates her eggs, 

 and never takes any part in rearing her young, 

 leaving that entirely to their foster parents. 

 The male is a. selfish polygamist, and after ' its "bogus" charge 



their nuptials the females clandestinelv deposit 

 from one to three eggs (generally only one) in 

 the nest of some other small bird, such as the 

 Song Sparrow, the Ground Robin, or the 

 "Summer Yellow Bird." When the young 

 are hatched out, which is usually a day or 

 two before the bird's own brood, these selfish 

 little creatures proceed to heave their foster 

 mother's own eggs or young over the edge of 

 the nest, when of course they perish, and the 

 httle intruder is fed by the unsophisticated 

 foster-mother, without a seeming suspicion 

 tliat anything has gone wrong, and she trans- 

 fers to it all the provident affection that she 

 would have bestowed upon her own brood. 

 The Present Case. 

 In the special case to which we refer, the 

 female cow-bunting chose the nest of the lit- 

 tle warbler familiarly known as the "summer 

 yellow bird," (Bendroica cestivn) which is 

 hardly half the size of the greedy young "car- 

 pet-bagger" she is so anxiously and inllustri- 

 ously feeding. All day she is assiduously en- 

 gaged in gathering worms and other soft in- 

 sects, which she feeds to her lubberly step- 

 child through the wire bars of the cage, and 

 she seems not to know anything else than that 

 it is her own offspring, or, if she knows to the 

 contrary, it does not abate her affection for it. 

 How much like a hard-worked mother among 

 the human species, toiling to support a set of 

 selfish family loafers, who may be no nearer 

 related to her by filial sympathy than this 

 bird is to its foster mother. 



How a Cow Bunting Looks. 

 The cow-bird or cow-bunting belongs to the 

 order Insessors, or perching birds, and to 

 the family Ictekid.e, or black birds. In the 

 adult male, the head, neck and anterior half 

 of the breast is a chocolate brown, and the 

 rest is a lustrous black. The female is tinged 

 with olive brown all over, but thb young are a 

 mottled greyish. 



One of Its Foster Mothers. 

 The little summer yellow-bird, or yellow 

 warbler, belongs also to the perching birds, 

 and to the family Sylvicola— a very large 

 family, containing a large number of pretty 

 little warblers. They build their nests in 

 bushes or small trees," and very frequently in 

 apple trees, near houses. 



When they once become domiciled they re- 

 pose the utmost confidence in the human 

 family., and often rear broods of young a few 

 feet from the ground, nearhumanhabitations, 

 and will allow persons to approach them dur- 

 ing incubation without leaving the nest, and 

 perhaps more than any other species they suf- 

 fer the impositions of the stealthy and impu- 

 dent cow-bird. 



Where They Got Their Name. 

 These birds have derived this name from 

 their familiar associations with the cows, often 

 following them into the barnyards and perch- 

 ing upon their backs. We distinctly remem- 

 ber these birds as sitting on the backs of the 

 cows and other kine since the days of our early 

 boyhood — long before we knew of their pecu- 

 liar nesting habits. The blue bird, the chip- 

 ping sparrow and the golden-crowned thrush 

 are also occasionally imposed upon by the cow 

 bird, and instancts are on record where these 

 birds, on discovering the egg or eggs of this 

 arch-intruder in their nests, have quietly pro- 

 ceeded in building another nest immediate- 

 ly over the first nest, thus defeating their 

 adversary by enclosing its eggs in a prison, 

 from which there is no escape, and which re- 

 sults in its ultimate destruction. 

 Not the First Time. 

 We are informed by Mr. Weaver that he 

 observed the same kind of a bird in his apple 

 tree a year ago, being fed by the little yellow 

 bird, and he could not understand what par- 

 ticular relation existed between the two birds. 

 He tried then, but did not succeed in captur- 

 ing it. This summer he succeeded, but in- 

 stead of the old bird abandoning it, it only the 

 more industriously attended to the wants of 



