THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The old dwarf almond bushes in gardens 

 are excellent breeding places for this in- 

 sect, and it would be well for all who love 

 such plants to examine them occasionally, 

 and destroy all the grubs found. Peach 

 trees may be protected with tar-paper 

 bands but this is not practicable with such 

 slender and free sucking plants as the 

 dwarf, flowering almond. — A. S. F. 



THE GRAPE PHYLLOXERA IN SONOMA. 



A correspondent who has large interests 

 in California grape-culture and who has 

 recently returned from an extended visit 

 to the richer wine-producing sections of 

 the State, but who does not wish his name 

 to appear, gives the following account of 

 his observations in the Napa and Sonoma 

 valleys : 



When I arrived in California, last sum- 

 mer, already at San Francisco my attention 

 was called by nearly every vine grower to 

 the ravages which the Phylloxera has 

 caused in the different wine districts. Each 

 one had to add some bad news to the com- 

 mon stock, and all agreed that so far no 

 remedy, that had proved reliable, had been 

 found. 



My first visit in the interior was to the 

 Napa Valley, where, from Napa City, north- 

 ward, nearly 50 miles of unbroken vine- 

 yards adorn the hilly borders of the Napa 

 Creek. Personally acquainted with nearly 

 every one of the wine-growers there, I re- 

 ceived from all of them the assurance, that 

 not a single case of Phylloxera had been 

 detected in their vineyards. 



Mr. Chas. Kane, the oldest of the large 

 Wine-growers of the Valley, and President 

 of the Wine-growers' Association of the St. 

 Helena district, the most important Wine 

 district (both as to quality and quantity 

 produced) of the whole State of California 

 assured me, that he and his neighbors had 

 investigated a great quantity of sick-look- 

 ing vines, but could never find any signs 

 of Phylloxera ; I lay stress upon this fact, 

 because only a few miles distant, across a 

 low range of hills where the Sonoma Creek 

 drains the beautiful Sonoma Valley, the 

 Phylloxera has destroyed hundreds of acres 

 of vineyards ; and has been established 

 there for the last five years. 



What may account for the non-existence 

 of the insect in one valley and the rapid 

 increase of the plague in the other, only a 

 few miles distant, nobody seemed to be 



able to answer positively. Some believe 

 that the richer soil of the Napa Valley doe ; 

 not favor the development and increase of 

 the insect so well as the gravelly bottom of 

 the Sonoma Valley ; while others say that 

 the careful treatment and greater cleanli- 

 ness of the vineyards of Napa shield them 

 from the insect. It must be acknowledged, 

 that no deserted vineyards or even disor- 

 derly kept vineyards can be found in the 

 Napa Valley, while in the Sonoma Valley 

 it forcibly strikes the visitor, that before 

 reaching Sonoma and after Sonoma is 

 passed, there are many vineyards which 

 seem to have been entirely deserted. But 

 at the same time, I can state from what I 

 saw myself, that even the best cared-for 

 vineyards are not safe from the insect in 

 Sonoma Valley. I have seen vineyards 

 there as well treated and in as good order 

 (and known to have been so for years), as 

 any in the Tj^hole State of California and 

 still the Phylloxera was working with ter- 

 rible effect. 



In this valley nobody was able to give 

 any suggestion as to how the insect might 

 be fought successfully. It seemed that 

 every variety of vine planted in the valley 

 had been attacked and was finally de- 

 stroyed, or being destroyed. 



THE FOOD-HABITS OP THRUSHES. 



Prof. C. V. Riley. 



Dear Sir : I summed up, recently, my 

 notes of the contents of the stomachs of 

 150 birds of the Thrush Family [Turdidcc), 

 and as some of the general results are 

 quite unexpected to myself, I infer that 

 they may be interesting to others. Forty- 

 one of these birds were Robins ; thirty- 

 seven were Cat-birds ; twenty-eight. Brown 

 thrushes ; eleven. Wood thrushes ; eight- 

 een. Hermit thrushes ; eight, Alice's 

 thrushes ; six, Swainson's thrushes, and 

 one was a Wilson's thrush, or Veery. They 

 were shot in central, western and northern 

 Illinois, in various months, from March to 

 September, and during four successive 

 years, chiefly, however^ in 1876 and 1879. 



The number of specimens is, of course, 

 too small to allow conclusive generaliz- 

 ation ; but as I think no equal number of 

 specimens has been previously studied with 

 equal care, it will probably be fair to state 

 some of the results as hypotheses, more or 



