VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAN. 69 



When they arrived, the insects had disappeared from the 

 place where they had been so abundant in the morning. 

 The statement by the family that a flock of Blackbirds had 

 been there during the farmer's absence solved the mystery. 

 In another instance a garden was attacked by an innumer- 

 able host of little locusts. The owner battled bravely with 

 them for awhile, but at last, giving up in despair, sat down 

 to watch the destruction of his vegetables and flowers, when 

 suddenly a flock of Blackbirds alighted on the young cot- 

 ton woods he had planted in his yard. Having chirped a 

 song, as if to cheer him, they flew into the garden ; when 

 they left, an hour or so later, the dreaded " hoppers " were 

 gone, and his garden was saved. 1 



A severe outbreak of the forest tent caterpillar (Malaco- 

 soma disstria) occurred in New York and some of the New 

 England States in 1897-98. Thousands of acres of wood- 



o 



land were devastated, great damage was done to the sugar- 

 maple orchards of New York and Vermont, and the injury 

 extended into Massachusetts. Birds and other natural ene- 

 mies attacked the caterpillars vigorously in many localities, 

 and by the year 1900 the plague had been reduced so that 

 the injury was no longer seen. Miss Mary B. Sherman of 

 Ogdensburg, N. Y., wrote on May 18 of that year that the 

 town was then full of birds which were feeding on the cater- 

 pillars. There had been numerous Warblers in the maples, 

 and the Orioles, Sparrows, Robins, Cedar Birds, several 

 species of Warblers, and probably the House Wren, were 

 killing caterpillars. Birds were reported in large numbers 

 in the county. On May 26 she wrote again, stating that 

 there were practically no caterpillars left, cold weather hav- 

 ing killed many, and the birds apparently having destroyed 

 the remainder. 2 



The good accomplished by birds in quelling great insect in- 

 vasions should be patent to all, but very few people realize 

 what the birds are doing. Many Nebraskans failed to notice 



First Report of the United States Entomological Commission. Kiley, Pack- 

 ard, and Thomas. 1877, pp. 335, 336, 338-344. 



2 Report on the Injurious and Other Insects of the State of New York, by 

 E. P. Felt, 1900, p. 1019. 



