394 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



sparrow, song sparrow, robin, flicker, bluebird, blackbird. We 

 also found the brown thrasher and the towhee apparently 

 feeding on the caterpillars, and people reported the cow 

 birds, cat birds, pheasants, jellow-legs and upland plovers 

 feeding upon them. Robins appear to be among the most ef- 

 fective of all, and the English sparrows were quite numerous 

 in the browned fields, and were seen time after time feeding on 

 the caterpillar. 



On my own place at Wareham I have taken much pains to 

 attract the birds this year, and also on the neighboring farms 

 to the east, and have put up altogether more than 75 nesting 

 boxes. Many are occupied by birds, and although we have seen 

 army worms occasionally, neither I nor my neighbors on whose 

 premises nesting boxes have been put up have had any trouble 

 with the army worm during the year. Less than 20 rods to the 

 west of my place some damage has been done to the grass in the 

 meadows, and from there over and through the towm of Ware- 

 ham much grass was eaten and some corn, but the infestation in 

 that part of Plymouth County was not so great as on Marthas 

 Vineyard. 



In looking over the infested fields and noting the results, 

 work of the birds was evident. It seems probable that where 

 the worms have not already reached a field they may be kept out 

 of it by careful trenching, and by killing them with kerosene 

 or some other oil as they fall into the pits or the trenches. In 

 many cases this method would have been quite as effective as the 

 poisoned bran. 



The following from the " Philadelphia Press " is interesting, 

 although not a new discovery : — 



Ducks war on Mosquitoes. 



State Health Commissioner Dixon has made a vahiable discovery in 

 ascertaining through actual test that ducks eat up mosquito larvfe in 

 water, and do it thoroughly. The many official pamphlets and books 

 that have been published on mosquito extermination since its disease- 

 carrying character has been demonstrated do not as a rule speak of the 

 duck's partiality to a mosquito larv-fe diet. 



Small fish are given credit for destroying mosquito larvfe. the ever- 

 present minnow in particulai*. But according to Dr. Dixon's test the 

 duck does much better at that work than the fish. The duck is a wader 



