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with him. On pages 204-211 of vol. 1, INSEcT LIFE, you will find an article on this 
spider, with illustrations of the different forms and an account of a fatal case in 
North Carolina.— * * * [November 28, 1891.] 
Death due to the Whip Scorpion and Tarantula. 
* * = While I was in E] Paso sometime since, some workmen were excavating 
for a smelting furnace. One of them dug out of the ground a Whip Scorpion (we 
called it Thelephonus excubitor) and was stung by it, and died a few hours afterward. 
Whether the man was in good health or not I am not able to say. I have known of 
two healthy men bitten by a Tarantula, that made only anugly sore; a girl of twevel | 
years of age was bitten by one and died from the effects of the bite, but Iam again 
unable to say whether she was in good health or not. It seems that a very trifling 
thing will sometimes cause death when a person is not healthy. 
The Mexicans call the Telephonus vinagron—smelling of vinegar.—[G. W. Dunn, 
California, November 2, 1891. 
Tame Birds as Insect Destroyers in Greenhouses. 
A glass roof on the back building of our dwelling gives us a garden 20 by 28 feet 
in the third story which is warmed at night by waste heat from kitchen, dining, and 
other rooms below. This attic garden we use as a laboratory for testing soils, plant. 
foods, and insecticides. We also winter our more tender and valued plants in it, and 
this bring the insects and eggs along, so that all we have been able to do, with smok- 
ing twice a week with tobacco stems and using other insecticides, was to keep the. 
Aphis in check, and get crops of lettuce and radishes far below what they might be 
under other circumstances. We were obliged to exercise great care, or the smoke 
would kill the more tender flowering plants. We experienced much more trouble 
with insects in this garden than in our larger plant houses outside. Being anxious 
to find some means of managing the insect pests, less injurious to the plants, we di- 
rected our studies to birds and placed in an Indigo Bird—Fringilla cyanea—soon after 
planting, and we are now marketing better radishes than at any time during the five 
years we have been using the place. When we placed the bird in, the room was 
swarming with wasps and various kinds of flies, which in a few days disappeared. 
During this time the bird ate none of his seed. It is yet too wild to hunt or eat 
during our presence. 
We do not claim to have discovered a complete remedy from a single or so short 
a trial; but the testimony so far is favorable, and my object in this letter is to en- 
courage others to make experiments. We placed a wirescreen over the ventilating 
door to prevent the bird’sescape. We believe that these birds, and perhaps any of the 
Fringilla family, might be domesticated so as to occupy our gardens during summer, 
and remain in our plant houses during winter if fed and protected. Sylvia sialis, our 
Blue Bird, Sylvia domestica, the House Wren, and others of that family, we have no 
doubt, would clear plants of the Red Spider, which is often troublesome. We once 
placed a wounded Crow Blackbird in a conservatory, and when he recovered he 
would turn up the leaves with his great bill and look under them for insects. In that 
case the conservatory adjoined our dining room, and a Robin and a Mocking Bird 
would come to my shoulders, one on each, while at dinner. I learned of their power 
of wing from strokes on my neck when they were fighting each other. As to the 
work of putting in wire doors and wires over the ventilators, the beautiful plumage 
and melodious songs doubly repay all that. The beauty ef the richest collection of 
plants is heightened by the lively flitting of birds, and birds never seem so pretty as 
when perching on plants. We were glad to notice your statement that the Quail, 
Cardinal Grossbeak, and other birds ate the Potato Beetle, and presume you will 
join us in our effort to cultivate public opinion to such a degree as will insure a better 
protection for and a more friendly relation with our birds.—[R, Bingham, New Jer- 
sey, December 1, 1891. 
