400 



Bird - Lore 



BIRDS AND THE ARMY- WORM 



The past summer has witnessed an 

 unusual invasion of the eastern states 

 by the army-worm. In many sections its 

 raids on vegetation have occasioned much 

 concern and actual loss. How to meet its 

 advances and check its onslaught has 

 claimed the attention of many gardeners 

 and farmers, and by the advice of ento- 

 mologists poison has been resorted to. 

 Testimony received at this ofl&ce from 

 several places tends to show that there is 

 grave doubt as to whether this is the 

 wisest course to pursue in dealing with 

 the army-worm scourge. Frederic L. 

 Thompson, an artist, writing from Chil- 

 mark, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, 

 Massachusetts, says: 



"There has been an invasion of the 

 army- worm here, and I notice th? Govern- 

 ment issues pamphlets on the subject of 

 its destruction; among other things it 

 advises the use of bran mixed with paris 

 green. This mixture kills thousands of 

 song-birds, as I have found here. As this 

 is being done all over the country, the 

 loss of song-birds must be great. I also 

 noticed Chewinks and Catbirds eating 

 the worms, and I think this fact should 

 be brought to the attention of farmers." 



The observations of Edward A. Gill 

 Wylie, a lawyer at No. 149 Broadway, 

 New York, are well worthy of careful 

 reading. He writes: "The present plague 

 of army-worms, which this summer 

 was so prevalent in New Jersey, 

 New York, and New England States, 

 provides a severe example to us 

 of one of the many reasons why the 

 number of insectivorous birds should 

 not only be conserved but materially 

 increased. A horde of these pests suddenly 

 came to light on a small place about four 

 acres large, within one hundred yards of 

 where I am this summer living, on the 

 Rumson Road, New Jersey. Immedi- 

 ately the birds of the neighborhood de- 

 serted their usual haunts and assembled 

 on these four acres. I personally counted 

 sixty-three Robins, Thrushes, Catbirds, 

 and Meadowlarks at one time on a little 



square of lawn about 120 by 60 feet, and 

 feel confident that, as this was at high 

 noon, it was not their busy time of day. 

 I was informed by the gardener that they 

 ate so many that often a bird would dis- 

 gorge and proceed to make a fresh start, 

 and that at least one-half of the worms 

 were consumed by them in the two days 

 which elapsed before the spraying by 

 experts commenced to destroy what was 

 left — and their number was legion. Inci- 

 dentally, this spraying of four acres cost 

 the owner of the property $60 a day. 

 "Under the eaves of my porch is a little 

 family of House Wrens, the four younger 

 members of which were hatched about 

 two days before the army- worms appeared. 

 Several times during the course of the 

 plague I counted twelve trips in ten min- 

 utes to the nest of the parent-birds, with 

 food, always army-worms. How the 

 young ones could stand the quantity they 

 ate was a marvel. The old ones would fly 

 direct to the source of supply, and would 

 return almost immediately with a whole 

 worm, stop under a near-by hedge, chop 

 off from the whole a suitable morsel of 

 swallowable size for the little ones, fly 

 up to the nest, and then away for a fresh 

 one; never returning to get the remainder 

 of the old worm, but seemingly preferring 

 a fresh one. Their diet consisted, so far 

 as I could ascertain, of the army-worm, 

 until the final destruction of the army 

 was accomplished by man and his feath- 

 ered friends. Even moths were ignored, 

 and several fat little spiders built a web 

 within ten inches of the nest and were 

 entirely undisturbed." 



Testimony of Mr. Forbush 



Edward Howe Forbush, the foremost 

 economic ornithologist of New England, 

 reports, under date of August 10, 1914: 



"I have been looking over the destruc- 

 tive work of the army-worm in this state. 

 While the worms have been quite de- 

 structive in Wareham, Massachusetts, 

 they have done no harm at all on my farm. 



