70 USEFUL BIRDS. 
that birds were feeding on the locusts until Professor Aughey 
called their attention to this fact by articles published in the 
press. 
Birds are doing the same kind of work in Massachusetts 
to-day, in repressing smaller outbreaks of common insects. 
Had we more observing people to record such services, their 
amount and variety probably would astound us. Professor 
Beal saw a family of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks clear the potato 
beetles from a potato patch of about one-fourth of an acre. 
Mr. E. W. Wood of West Newton, a well-known horticultur- 
ist, informed me that during one season, when the spring can- 
kerworms (Paleacrita vernata) became quite numerous in his 
orchard, a pair of Baltimore Orioles appeared, built a nest 
near by, and fed daily upon the cankerworms. This they 
continued to do assiduously; by the time the young birds 
were hatched, the numbers of the worms were considerably 
reduced. The birds then redoubled their diligence, carry- 
ing ten or eleven worms to the nest at once. Soon the 
cankerworms had disappeared, and there has been no trouble 
from them for many years. 
Instances were recorded during the first State campaign 
against the gipsy moth, from 1890 to 1895, where small 
isolated moth colonies appeared to have been suppressed 
and even annihilated by birds. A serious outbreak was 
discovered in Georgetown, Mass., in 1899. It had been in 
existence for a long time, but its spread had evidently been 
limited by the great number of birds that were feeding there 
on all forms of the moth. Several months later the State 
abandoned the work against the moth, and little hope was 
entertained that anything more than a severe check had been 
given the insect in Georgetown. Nevertheless, in the six 
years that have since elapsed comparatively few moths have 
been found in that locality. The most feasible explanation 
of this seems to be that up to 1906 the birds have kept the 
numbers of the moths below the point where they can do 
appreciable injury. 
I have had several opportunities, within the last fifteen 
years, to watch the checking of insect uprisings by birds. . 
One morning in the fall of 1904 I noticed in some poplar 
