29 



brown-tail moths. Not only do these birds eat the moths themselves, 

 but they also feed them to their young. I saw the sparrows repeatedly 

 hunting along fences and carrying off the resting moths to their nests 

 in July of the present year. At Soinerville last year it was no uncom- 

 mon sight to see flocks of twenty or more sparrows collecting the moths 

 from a picket fence." 



Bats feed continuously on the flying moths at night. Their work is 

 noiseless, but can be followed by watching the falling wings. Bats 

 were seen feeding on the moths around an electric light in Maiden on 

 the night of July 14, 1898, and on the following morning 200 wings of 

 the brown-tail moth were counted on the ground beneath that lamp. 



Toads must also be reckoned in the list of the enemies of this insect. 

 They devour the caterpillars during the early summer and the imagos 

 later in the season. 



Electric arc lights destroy large numbers of these moths, chiefly 

 males, however. Under an arc light in Somerv T ille on the night of July 

 16, 1897, at 3 a. in., 236 males and 71 females were counted. Under a 

 second arc light 29 males and 11 females. Under a third light, 7 males 

 and 1 females, and under a fourth were counted 3 males and 1 females. 

 Arc lights also attract hundreds of moths, mostly females, that alight 

 upon the poles and houses in the vicinity, where they remain till the 

 next day, when tbey fall an easy prey to the English sparrows. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH INSECTICIDES. 



In the early part of this season, as no provision had then been made 

 for work against the brown- tail moth, though the bill which has since 

 become a law was before the legislature, it was decided to perform a 

 few experiments upon this insect with some of the more common insec- 

 ticides. For this purpose a number of badly infested pear trees from 

 10 to 15 feet high, and containing from six to ten undisturbed winter 

 webs, were selected in the southern part of Maiden and sprayed May 19, 

 1898. The caterpillars were at that time in the second and third molts. 



The first tree was sprayed with arsenate of lead, 1 pound to 150 

 gallons of water. In two days no results were apparent. In three 

 days the stripping of the trees had ceased. In four days 50 per cent 

 of the caterpillars were dead. In seven days 90 per cent were dead, 

 and in thirteen days all were dead. The second tree was sprayed with 

 2 pounds of arsenate of lead in 150 gallons of water, and the results 

 were very similar to those on the first tree. The third tree was sprayed 

 with arsenate of lead, 5 pounds to 150 gallons of water. In four days 

 80 per cent were dead, and in nine days all were dead. The fourth tree 

 was sprayed with arsenate of lead, 10 pounds to 150 gallons of water. 

 A few were dead in two days, 50 per cent in three days, 80 per cent in 

 four days, and all were dead in six days. 



The fifth tree was sprayed with Paris green, 1 pound to 150 gallons of 

 water. In three days 10 per cent were dead, 50 per cent in four days, 



