31 



"The aphid common to the white birch in this region lays great 

 masse- of eggs on the Inula and twigs. Some trees during the fall of 

 1897 were so thoroughly covered with these eggs that the natural color 

 of the bark was obscured. This vast quantity of eggs served as a store- 

 house of food for many of our winter birds, and (luring the days when 

 the ground was covered with snow several species of seed-eating birds 

 were seen to feed upon them. Throughout the winter the chickadees 

 fed on these ('£[!;>. The fact was one of almost daily observation. On 

 March 10, L898, while on a tramp through the Middlesex Fells, I noticed 

 a large flock of these birds feeding in the white birches that covered the 

 southern exposure of a hill. By entering the brushland in advance 

 of the birds 1 was soon in the midst of the Hock, and, remaining motion- 

 less, had an opportunitj- to observe them feeding upon the masses of 

 the i'^'j:>. A few days before this date I saw a downy woodpecker 

 feeding upon the eggs on a large white birch that was partly covered 

 with them. Goldfinches were also common visitors to the infested 

 bushes, especially after the snowstorms. The stomach of one of these 

 birds taken at 8 a.m., Feb. 8, 1898, contained 2,210 eggs of the white 

 birch aphid. When other food was scarce the English sparrow found 

 these eggs a suitable article of diet, and one of these birds, taken at 4 

 p.m., Jan. 29, 1898, contained 1,478 aphid eggs. 



" A plant louse that is common on larches, often to an injurious ex- 

 tent, is Chermes larcifolia, Fitch. This insect lays great numbers of 

 stalked eggs in April and May, and the young lice resulting feed on the 

 juices of the leaves throughout the summer. At the Bell Rock Ceme- 

 tery, Maiden, April 20, 1898, I saw a flock of over forty goldfinches 

 feeding on the eggs and female lice. The birds began feeding at the 

 top of the trees, worked down to the lower branches, then flew to the 

 top of the next larch and repeated the performance. A few English 

 sparrows also ate the eggs. 



" During the past winter (1897-98) I have frequently seen chickadees 

 feeding upon female canker worm moths, picking them to pieces before 

 eating them. On Nov. 26, 1897, 

 I examined the stomach of a 

 white-breasted nuthatch and 

 found it to contain 1,629 eggs 

 of the fall canker worm. There 

 were no moth remains in the 

 stomach, and it is evident that 

 the bird gathered these eggs 

 from the trees." 



My friend, Mr. C. E Bailey" 

 writes that on March 28, 1899, 

 a single downy woodpecker 

 made "2Q excavations for food 

 between 9.40 a.m and 12.15 p.m 

 During this time it climbed over 

 and inspected, in a greater or 

 less degree, 181 trees. Most of 

 these excavations exposed gal- 

 leries in the trunks or high 

 branches in which ants were 

 hibernating. An examination 

 of the stomach of this bird 

 brought to light one spider, 1 

 beetle (unidentified), 2 larva 1 of 

 bark beetles (Scolylidw) and 22 

 ants, also partially digested material which could not be identified. At 

 12.15 the woodpecker was at work thirty-five feet from the ground on 

 the dead end of a broken branch, in which were the channels or galleries 



Fig 2. — Downy woodpecker and his 

 excavations. 



