58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



elements and delivering our trees from a host of potential 

 insects, which, otherwise, would develop and swarm upon 

 them in the spring. Many of these birds are destroyed by 

 cold and storms, but the survivors, undaunted, still linger, 

 seeking protection from the fury of the elements wherever 

 they can find it. 



My friend Mr. C. E. Bailey once discovered two chickadees 

 hiding during a snow storm in a cavity beneath a deserted 

 crow's nest. It was snowing hard, and night was coming 

 on. Mr. Bailey, seeing something moving among the twigs 

 and leaves of which the nest was composed, climbed the 

 tree. The birds remained until his hand was quite near 

 them, when they flew out, but they returned to their shelter 

 before he had reached the ground. There they probably 

 passed the night. On another occasion a storm of cold rain 

 and sleet had covered the trees with ice. Mr. Bailey saw 

 two poor chickadees, almost exhausted from exposure and 

 lack of food and their tails covered with ice, crawling beneath 

 the loosened clapboards on an old building for shelter from 

 the storm. 



The chickadee is, perhaps, the most useful bird of this 

 group. It will well pay the farmer to provide food and 

 shelter for these birds during the winter months and so keep 

 them about the orchard and farm buildings. He can secure 

 no better return for a small outlay. 



The clock warns me that there will be no time to more than 

 mention the useful thrush family. But it is always expected 

 that something will be said about the robin. My own opinion 

 of the robin may be judged by my treatment of the bird. 

 There is a white pine grove within a few rods of my home, 

 where the robins resort to roost in August and September. 

 They come after sunset by hundreds, roost in the pines 

 all night and scatter round about to feed at early dawn. 

 Among them is one albino bird, white with a black head. 

 If those robins continue to come there that white pine 

 grove shall continue to furnish them a place of refuge. I 

 have ordered two dozen cherry trees to be planted in the 

 vicinity, as a further attraction to the birds. They are the 

 most expert bird at digging out and killing white grubs, — 



