85 
to some other cause, it can with reason be attributed to the low tem- 
perature. | 
Aspidiotus forbesi seems to have been affected very little if at all. 
This scale is well distributed all over the State, and large orchards are 
infested. It was quite bad last year, killing a number of trees. Plenty 
of live scales could be found soon after the freeze, but they have not 
multiplied so rapidly and are not so abundant this season as last. This 
decrease in the forbest is due, I think, to the work of the fungus Sphe- 
rostilbe coccophila and the ladybird beetle Chilocorus bivulnerus, both of - 
which are very abundant on this scale, rather than the effects of the 
freeze. 
_ Mr. Webster expressed the opinion that the San Jose scale breeds 
continuously when climatic conditions permit. He mentioned finding 
young scales in January. Doubtless the cold of winter kills the young, 
_but the mature scales survive and continue breeding. Oddly enough, 
he had experienced difficulty in establishing the San Jose seale in the 
greenhouse at his insectary, his efforts for two years being unsuccessful. 
The following paper was then presented: 
THE DESTRUCTION OF HAIRY CATERPILLARS BY BIRDS. 
By E. H. Forsusu, Malden, Mass. 
Among his first recollections of bird life the writer remembers, when 
a boy, watching a red-eyed vireo in a swampy thicket. He was 
attracted by its intermittent singing, and on nearer approach saw that 
during each intermission of the song the bird was killing and eating a 
caterpillar or other insect. This observation opened a new field for 
study, through which in later years many interesting facts in regard 
to the food of birds have come to light. 
It was learned that birds, by reason of their great powers of flight 
and vision, were better fitted to search for food over a wide area than 
any other creatures; that they could readily gather from all quarters 
and thus concentrate their forces upon any spot where food was plen-. 
tiful, and that they were thus designed as the principal agency among 
the higher animals for regulating the increase of insects and control- 
ling insect outbreaks. It was learned that a tremendous amount of 
food was required for the sustenance of birds, and also that the young 
of most of the land species require a vast quantity of animal food to 
assure their rapid and healthy growth; furthermore, that most birds 
Supply the wants of their young with insects. 
It is now generally admitted by all who have knowledge of the sub- 
ject that birds constitute one of the principal checks on the undue 
multiplication of insect life; but it is maintained that many insects are 
not attacked by birds and that many others are nearly exempt from 
such attacks by reason of protective coloring or their outer clothing of 
