26 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 198. 



vegetable matter is about one-half grain and the other half weed seed. 

 Most of the grain consumed is waste grain left in the field. This is 

 a very useful bird, with no serious faults of any kind. 



Woodpeckers: These birds perform a service to mankind for 

 which no other creatures are adapted. They are, before all other 

 birds, the conservators of the forest and orchard. Those insects, which 

 because of their insidious habits, are beyond the discovery of other 

 birds, and generally of man himself, constitute the common prey of 

 the woodpeckers. Bark-borers and borers into the heart-wood, in- 

 sects which strike for the vitals of the tree, are diligently sought 

 for, winter and summer, by these birds. The ants, which 

 burrow into decaying wood and thus extend and expose a 

 greater surface to decay, are also eaten in large quantity. 

 There is one disreputable member in the family, which puts 

 the whole group under suspicion with people who do not care- 

 fully discriminate. This is the villanous Sapsucker, or Yellow-bel- 

 lied ^Voodpecke^, which makes rows of punctures in horizontal or 

 spiral series in the bark of many trees. These punctures extend 

 into the cambium or sapwood and when they become filled with sap 

 are sucked dry by the bird. So many of these punctures are often 

 made upon a tree that the effect is that of girdling it, and the tree 

 dies. Sugar maples and coniferous evergreens are favorite objects 

 of attack, but orchard and forest trees suffer also. While the bird 

 eats a good many insects, I believe the shot-gun should be used 

 whenever it is found to be attacking valuable trees. 



Warblers and Vireos: The last week in April and the first 

 week in May, for the southern and the northern parts of the state 

 respectively, usually see the warblers migrating from their south- 

 ern winter resorts to their Canadian breeding grounds. The vireos 

 come at the same time, some of these remaining as summer resi- 

 dents. The following quotation from Dr. Elliott Coues gives a good 

 idea of the activities of both groups, which possess similar habits: 



"With tireless industry do the warblers befriend the human 

 race. Their unconscious zeal plays due part in the nice adjustment 

 of nature's forces, helping to bring about that balance of vegetable 

 and insect life without which agriculture would be in vain. They 

 visit the orchard when the apple and pear, the plum and cherry are 

 in bloom, seeming to revel carelessly amid the sweet-scented and 

 delicately tinted blossoms, but never faltering in their good work. 

 They peer into the crevices of the bark, scrutinize each leaf, and 

 explore the very heart of the buds to detect, drag forth, and destroy 

 these tiny creatures, singly insignificant, collectively a scourge 

 which prey upon the hopes of the fruit grower, and which, if un- 

 disturbed, would bring his care to naught." 



