262 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



such signal success that, although most of the eggs and young 

 birds were destroyed by cats, boys, crows, and other agencies, 

 the remaining injurious insects were so completely disposed 

 of by the birds that the trees bore luxuriant foliage during 

 the entire summer, and produced a good crop of fruit. This 

 occurred in a season when the tent caterpillar and the canker- 

 worm were remarkably prevalent. The only other orchard 

 in the neighborhood that produced any fruit whatever was 

 that of the nearest neighbor. This had been partly protected 

 by tarred bands and partly by the birds from my place. Else- 

 where in the town most of the apple trees were defoliated, and 

 very few produced any fruit that year. While the result 

 secured in such an exceptional year seemed remarkable, the 

 experience of succeeding years has demonstrated that it was 

 not so. Year after year we have kept the trees free from 

 insect injury, without spraying or otherwise protecting the 

 foliage, merely by a little effort and expenditure to attract 

 the birds and furnish them safe homes. While the protection 

 of the tree itself is essential (i. e., its trunk, limbs, twigs, and 

 bark), the protection of its foliage, which shades the fruit 

 and so allows it to mature, is also imperative.'' 



As regulators of occasional outbreaks of noxious animals 

 birds have played a valuable part more than once in the past. 

 In the invasions of locusts that occur occasionally in the 

 West, birds of all sorts — hawks, owls, geese, ducks, grouse, 

 pigeons, shore birds, woodpeckers,' gulls, crows, blackbirds, 

 herons, vireos, sparrows, swallows, warblers, thrushes, and 

 even hummingbirds — swarm to the feast and devour these 

 insects in incredible numbers. The same thing is true when 

 the hordes of the army-worm appear. In the plagues of mice 

 that sometimes infest parts of Europe, hawks and owls flock 

 to the spot, and feed on little else until these animals are 

 reduced to their normal numbers. If we wantonly destroy 

 our hawks and owls, we lay ourselves open to such outbreaks, 

 and have removed those whose pleasure it would be to protect 

 us in such an emergency. 



The value of certain species as a source of food, and from 

 the standpoint of sportsmen, is too well understood to require 

 discussion. Formerly, when Roseate Terns {Sterna dougalli) 



