REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I9O9 IQI 



nuded great tracts of timber on the mountain side and reports 

 that while the worms are still very young there is every indi- 

 cation that they will be more numerous than they were last 

 year. The prediction appears to have been abundantly verified 

 by subsequent experience. Mr Walter Hannah of Poughkeepsie 

 states that on July 4 he ascended Slide mountain and on the 

 next day crossed Mount Cornell and the Wittenberg. All the 

 way up from Winnesook lake the trees and undergrowth were 

 literally covered with caterpillars which were eating leaves and 

 strewing the ground with irregular shaped pieces. The pests 

 w^ere particularly bad on the maples and birches. ]^Irs Olive 

 Wade of Brooklyn also records extensive injuries in the town- 

 ship of Denning. Mr Walter W. Lewis of Dahlia, Sullivan co. 

 reported under date of July 26 that these caterpillars had de- 

 foliated hundreds of trees on his farm and in the adjoining; 

 neighborhood. 



The remarkable flights of moths recorded in 1908 were re- 

 peated in 1909. Swarms of the moths or millers about the 

 street lights in Xew York city this seasori were recorded by 

 the Daily Press of July 26 and a similar flight though not so ex- 

 tensive was observed in Albany the night of July 29. The re- 

 markable urban visitations of 1908 were not followed, as was 

 anticipated, by unusual injury to shade trees and the same 

 would undoubtedly be true of the outbreak the past season. The 

 English sparrow, as recorded previously, displayed most commend- 

 able activity in following up and destroying the moths and was 

 probably an important factor in preventing injuries to shade trees. 



We would reiterate that the recent extended outbreaks by 

 this leaf feeder and other enemies destructive to forest trees 

 must, in our judgment, be attributed in large measure to the 

 relative paucity of bird life. Some years ago Dr William T. 

 Hornaday of the New York Zoological Society calculated that 

 there had been a decrease of about 48^^ in the number of our 

 native birds. This estimate, taken in connection with the 

 enormous number of insects devoured by birds, is exceedingly 

 significant. h'or example, a pair of tanagers has been ob- 

 served to eat 35 newly hatched caterpillars in a minute and to 

 continue this for 18 minutes, making a total in this short time 

 cf 030 caterpillars destroyed. Two Maryland yellowthroats, 

 it is estimated, devoured 7000 plant lice within an hour. A 

 nearly tledged young crow, it is stated, requires at least 10 



