No. 4.] THE GYPSY MOTH. 395 



might determine whether the usefulness of foreign birds in 

 this respect has been exaggerated or underestimated, and 

 form some judgment of the desirability of attempting their 

 importation . 



A species of Mongolian pheasant (Phasimiiis torquaiiis) 

 has already been introduced under the auspices of the Fish 

 and Game Commission of Massachusetts, and the chairman 

 of the commission, Hon. E. A. Brackett, has been engaged in 

 propagating them for a year. Many are now at liberty, and 

 have been seen in the infested region. If they winter well, 

 there seems to be little doubt that the introduction will be 

 successful. 



jNIr. Brackett has observed that the young pheasants 

 destroy the caterpillars of the gypsy moth, and, in fact, all 

 insects within the enclosure in which they are confined. He 

 has offered to place at our disposal a few of the pheasants 

 and to furnish eggs for hatching another year, so that experi- 

 ments may be made with the birds. This bird was intro- 

 duced years ago into Oregon, Washington and British Colum- 

 bia. It is said to do very little harm, and as the young, 

 like the young of most land birds, are said to feed almost 

 entirely on insects, and as the bird is protected by law, it 

 may help to fill the gap among the enemies of injurious 

 insects which has been made by the wanton destruction of 

 our native gallinaceous birds. 



The Co-operation of Property Owners. 



During the past six years a disposition to co-operate with 

 the agents of the State Board of Agriculture in the work of 

 exterminating the gypsy moth has steadily increased among 

 property owners. In some localities where the moths have 

 done considerable damage in the past, the property owners 

 or residents have assisted by killing caterpillars under the 

 burlaps during the summer months, and some have assisted in 

 other ways. Notable among these are Gen. S. C. Lawrence 

 and 3klr. Walter Wright, both of ]Medford ; Messrs. Samuel 

 and Richard Hawkes of Saugus ; and Mr. Barthold Schlesin- 

 ger of Brookline. General Lawrence, who owns a sixty-acre 

 farm and a larire tract of woodland near the Middlesex Fells 



