186 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION!. 



damage to crops. These depredations in many instances are in isolated 

 glens or on hill-slopes, particularly those adjacent to wooded tracts. 

 The early fruits are always tempting morsels to the birds, in addition 

 to their regular diet. In years of drought or late frosts the wild fruits 

 will oftimes be less abundant than the domestic, and then the birds are 

 at their worst on crops. Another cause is the late continuous storms in 

 the tracks of migrating birds, particularly of northern or mountain- 

 breeding species, which will cause a change in movements and the birds 

 to tarry, especially if there be plenty of ripe fruit in the locality. 



A case that occurred some years ago was that of the Louisiana tanager, 

 which made its appearance first at Pasadena during May, 1896. They 

 came by thousands, to the great loss of the cherry-growers, one orchardist 

 not getting enough out of his crop to pay for the powder and shot used in 

 trying to rid his orchard of them. Three thousand tanagers were counted 

 on one piece of land. Ten days later I noted them around Haywards for 

 two weeks, they being present in great numbers in the small outlying 

 tracts near the foothills. From that year to the present time they have 

 only been seen in a few single instances. Another case worth men- 

 tioning, as it has caused a great deal of discussion on the question of 

 bird protection, is the appearance of robins in the Santa Clara olive 

 orchards. As to whether or not the robins will keep up their record as 

 each season opens remains to be seen. 



Where there is a necessary food-supply spread over the country and 

 natural conditions prevail, there is, as a rule, no great movement of 

 birds toward the cultivated areas. When Nature changes any of her 

 food-supply fields it also has the tendency to change the habits of the 

 fauna inhabiting the region, and sometimes man's crops must suffer. 

 Note the influx of great bands of wild pigeons driven from their snow- 

 covered summer home to southern climes last spring. This came about 

 seeding-time around the bay, and the farmers were up in arms, causing 

 the pigeons to be shot by thousands. A four-horse wagon could have 

 been loaded in one field below Alvarado, Alameda County. • 



All the woodpeckers {Picidx) are valuable tenants of the orchard, 

 excepting, perhaps, the red-breasted sapsucker, the only variety of this 

 group found along the coast region of California, it being only a 

 winter visitant from the high mountains. They will be found about 

 the apple, pear, and orange trees, pecking a series of holes encircling 

 the trunk or limbs, as the case may be. They seem to feed on the inner 

 bark and the sap which collects in the holes. Among the nut-growers 

 complaint is made of some woodpeckers (notably the California and the 

 Lewis) damaging the nuts; but if carefully inquired into it will be 

 found that larva3 or worms exist in the nuts so pecked. The wood- 

 peckers are great hunters after wood pests, hammering away at the 

 abodes of the grubs and borers. The red-shafted flicker is a fine codling- 



