STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 107 



discriminate between friend and foe, between- beneficial parasite 

 and mischievous insect, that we may encoui'age or cherish the 

 one and repress or destroy the other. 



We need, too, the cooperation of the birds whose fleetness of 

 wing-, sharpness of vision and acuteness of instinct, render them 

 most efiScient auxiliaries. We mention a few to illustrate their 

 usefulness. The robin, blackbird and quail make many a hearty 

 meal of the cut worms and their moths, each sometimes eating 

 daily an amount exceeding its own weight. All the thrushes 

 consume wire-worms. The catbird, the blue jay, the yellow-bill 

 and black-bill cuckoo commit great slaughter among the tent 

 caterpillars. The downy woodpecker by unerring instinct knows 

 where to bore his hole to find and to .feast upon the harmful 

 borer. The oriole destroys hosts of curculios and pupae of cod- 

 ling moths and tent caterpillars. The common cedar bird is a 

 most voracious devourer of the canker worms ; and the purple 

 groker and the house pigeon prey upon them as long as they last. 

 The European sparrow, imported into New York a few years ago, 

 exterminated the repulsive drop worms which infested the trees of 

 the parks and streets. They also make havoc of the dreaded 

 canker worm. The chirping sparrow, the song sparrow, the 

 purple finch, the white-eyed, red-eyed, yellow throated, solitary 

 and warbling vireos, the king-bird, the summer yellow bird, 

 Maryland yellow bird, blue bird and others are very efficient 

 assistants in destroying noxious worms and insects. 



Let us then encourage the feathered tribes to make their homes 

 in our gardens, orchards and fields that they may aid us in the 

 b'eneficent work ; and if some of them occasionally take a dessert 

 of fruit to give a relish to their caterpillar steak, and thus repay 

 themselves for long months of patient labor, let us cheerfully allow 

 them a moiety of our strawberries and cherries. Our farmers are 

 too apt to accuse them of pilfering fruit, and to owe them a 

 grudge. To such the following lines of Longfellow convey pecu- 

 liar significance: 



" You call them thieves and pillagers, b,ut know. 

 They are the winged wardens of your farms. 

 Who from the cornfields drive the insiduous foe. 

 And from your harvests keep a thousand hartnSj 

 Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail 

 And crying havoc on the slug or snail." 



