No. 4.] BIRDS USEFUL TO AGRICULTURE. 55 



pieces. Leaf galls are pecked open by it and the grubs 

 extracted from them. I have elsewhere recorded the fact 

 that a male tanager was seen to eat over thirty newly hatched 

 small gypsy moth caterpillars within five minutes, when he 

 was joined by a female, and both together continued eating 

 at this rate for eighteen minutes. Most of the numerous 

 host of oak tree insects must reckon with the tanager as a 

 vigilant and remorseless pursuer. This bird is also exceed- 

 ingly useful in the garden or orchards, near its favorite white 



oak groves. 



Swallows (Uirundinidce) . 



It is unfortunate that the swallows are not so numerous 

 now in this State as they were thirty years ago. Many barn 

 lofts where the barn swallows once bred no longer resound 

 to their twittering. Many colonies of eave swallows have 

 been broken up. The white-bellied or house swallows and 

 the purple martins have been driven away from their nesting 

 places largely by the imported English sparrow. The bank 

 swallow has almost disappeared from some sections of the 

 State. I know of no present breeding place of these birds in 

 Essex County. As all the swallows feed almost entirely upon 

 insects, when they can secure them, they will, when abun- 

 dant, do much to clear the air of flies, gnats, mosquitoes and 

 other winged hosts. They are said to destroy many of the 

 flies which trouble cattle, and they also feed upon caterpillars 

 like the canker worms, and many destructive beetles like the 

 so-called *' rose bug." 



Their food habits in this State have never been closely 

 studied. Their decrease of late years is partially owing to 

 unusual cold and storms in the south, which have destroyed 

 many during their southern migrations. It is partially due 

 also to their persecution by man, and in the case of the bank 

 swallow it may be due in some measure to a contagious 

 disease. 



Waxwing (AnipeUnce) . 



The cedar bird or cherry bird is surely a useful bird, and 

 it would pay the farmer to plant cherry trees, if only for the 

 purpose of attracting these birds to the orchard and garden. 

 Although they feed to a great extent on cherries and wild 

 berries in summer, and in winter on the fruit of the red 



