﻿Beneficial to Agriculture. 3 



insects ; and, as it hunts for its prey at all times during both 

 day and night, it destroys insects of both diurnal and nocturnal 

 habits, including crane-flies, beetles, grasshoppers, and many other 

 noxious kinds. 



Among the smaller birds there are certain species which are of 

 the greatest value to fruit-growers ; these include the titmice, which 

 feed largely upon such inconspicuous pests as the scale-insects 

 and other minute hibernating species (aphides, etc.), which form 

 a considerable portion of their winter diet, while during the 

 summer months they consume enormous quantities of injurious 

 larvae. Many of the warblers regularly frequent gardens and 

 orchards, especially during the months of August and September, 

 in search of aphides, which apparently form their chief food in late 

 summer and early autumn. 



The principal food of the woodpeckers consists of the wood- 

 boring larvae such as the very destructive leopard moth (Zeuzera 

 sesculi), which is so injurious to many fruit and forest trees. The 

 handsome Greater Spotted Woodpecker feeds extensively on this 

 particular species, and also on Sirex larvae, which are harmful to 

 fir trees by boring galleries in the solid wood. 



