The Audubon Note Book. 



285 



of many thousands of dollars each year, and that 

 others are highly beneficial, preying upon mice and 

 insects which are injurious to vegetation * * *." 

 While a strict interpretation of this by the average 

 reader would bear out our construction of it, we are 

 gratified to be told by Dr. Merriam that he is not 

 willing to be understood as wholly condemning birds 

 whose food is solely vegetable. 



are aware of the good they do. Our winter birds 

 are also doing good work. The seed-eating ones 

 pick up great quantities of the seeds of noxious 

 weeds, while our woodpeckers, jays and chickadees 

 are constantly on the lookout for hibernating insects. 

 Spare and encourage the birds, both winter and 

 summer, about your home grounds and fields. 



BIRD HELPERS. 



Mrs. Mary Treat, the well-known entomologist, 

 writes in the American Agriculturist : I wish to add 

 my testimony in a few words in favor of the various 

 birds that visit our gardens and orchards, in the 

 capacity of helpers, as they feed upon some of the 

 most noxious insects which we have to contend with. 

 First and foremost among these helpers is the 

 purple martin. It is the general impression that 

 this bird takes insects only on the wing, but it does 

 more than this. I saw numbers of them this past 

 summer taking the rose-bugs from the grapevines. 

 They swooped down and picked them off without 

 alighting. They circled around in companies, back 

 again to the same vine, each one snatching off a 

 bug as it passed. And not only the rose-bug falls 

 a victim to its appetite, but it even stoops to take 

 the Colorado potato-beetle. This has been seen by 

 others in our town, as well as by myself. Put up 

 boxes for the martins, and see that the English 

 sparrow does not get possession. 



The oriole is another great helper. It knows how 

 to pull the bag-worm from its case, and does it sys- 

 tematically and rapidly. The tent caterpillar and 

 fall web-worm it also has a liking for; it ruthlessly 

 tears the tents and webs to pieces and destroys un- 

 told numbers. Allow no gunner to shoot one of 

 these beautiful, gaily-dressed birds on your premises 

 — not even if the lady of his choice is pining for a 

 skeleton to perch on her hat. 



For several years past the leaves of our elm trees 

 have been ruined by the elm-beetle. Last year I 

 noticed the cedar bird devouring the beetle and 

 larvae. This year our elms are comparatively free 

 from the pests. The leaves are scarcely injured at all, 

 and the cedar birds are obliged to look close to find 

 a beetle. They hunt over the trees in small flocks. 

 They also destroy many other injurious creatures. 

 This bird likes berries. Raise enough for them as 

 well as for yourselves, and they will pay you back 

 with interest. 



The catbird and red-eyed vireo both eat the un- 

 savory pear-slug. But it is not necessary to mention 

 the good services rendered by our most common 

 birds, such as the robin, brown thrush, catbird, 

 bluebird and wren, as all observing horticulturists 



The story that went the round of the English and 

 American papers to the effect that Mrs. Mackay, wife 

 of the California millionaire, had sent two "sports- 

 men" to the East Indian Islands to procure five hun- 

 dred skins of the bird of paradise for a mantle, ap- 

 pears to be wholly unfounded in fact, and to have 

 been part of a system of malicious attack to which 

 that lady was undeservedly subjected. As we said 

 at the time, there was nothing in the story if true 

 which rendered the act in any way more reprehensible 

 than the instances of indulgence in feather millinery 

 which meet the eye everywhere; but if one was 

 shocked at the contemplation of an act of bad taste 

 attributed to Mrs. Mackay, what must be the senti- 

 ment with v^t^hich right-minded persons contemplated 

 the malice that could prompt an unfounded story to 

 the discredit of an unoffending person. We have no 

 direct authority for denying the story, but we find it 

 denied in a newspaper clipping sent us by one of our 

 correspondents, and we know enough of journalistic 

 ethics to have full confidence that no member of the 

 daily press would be tempted to shield a maligned 

 person unless authorized to do so. 



A Pigeon Walks Nine Miles. — About the mid- 

 dle of November, Lorenzo Beers of Stratford, Conn., 

 sold a number of tumbler pigeons to E. M. Beards- 

 ley of Huntington, Conn. A week or more after 

 their removal two of the birds returned to their old 

 home, and were sent back to Mr. Beardsley, who 

 plucked the quills from one wing of each bird as a 

 precaution against an attempt to fly again to Strat- 

 ford. On the 15th of December one of the pigeons 

 came walking down the street to the Beers residence, 

 having walked the whole distance, nine miles, from 

 Huntington. 



There hangs in our office a calendar for the com- 

 ing year, illustrated with a beautiful vignette, with a 

 spray of poppies in the background. It is chaste 

 in design and perfect in execution — a genuine work 

 of art, designed and engraved on steel by John A. 

 Lowell & Co. It may be duplicated by sending 25 

 cents to Doliber, Goodale & Co., of Boston. 



An advertisement in a Florida paper asks for 1000 

 young alligators, 500 pounds of large alligator teeth, 

 500 roseate spoonbill wings and all the alligator skins 

 in the county. The advertiser is a naturalist ! 



