23 
opposition is based upon theoretical ideas, and a thorough acquaintance 
with what is actually being done renders these arguments void, with 
possibly one exception. 
The writer was somewhat struck with the vi<-w expressed by one of 
these gentlemen in regard to the influence winch the woodland work of 
the committee might have upon native birds. It was said that in the 
extensive partial deforestation and thorough (dealing up of underbrush 
and burning over the dead leaves and low growth the nesting places 
of many birds were destroyed and the birds themselves were driven 
away. This seemed so important a matter that some attention was 
paid to it. It will be remembered that it has already been pointed out 
that none of this woodland work is general — that the insect occurs 
only in isolated colonies or in groups of colonies of slight extent com- 
pared with the forest area. A patch of a thousand acres of woodland. 
for example, may contain two or three infested localities, none of which 
will exceed 10 acres in extent, so that, admitting that the birds are 
temporarily driven from their nesting places in the areas worked over. 
they are not driven far and may shortly return to their original haunts. 
Moreover, the workers have this very matter distinctly in view, and 
they have even gone so far as to have constructed numbers of bird 
boxes, which are placed in appropriate situations for the purpose of 
attracting nesting birds. 
Appreciating thoroughly as they do the aid that insectivorous birds 
afford them in their work, they endeavor to tune, where possible, their 
operations in localities where birds abound in such a way as to interfere 
as little as possible with the nesting. The bird argument comes, too. 
from persons living in houses with old gardens, where the birds nest in 
the shrubbery. It becomes necessary sometimes to destroy this shrub- 
bery in order to eradicate the moth, and. as a matter of course, the 
birds are here driven away temporarily. Moreover, the workers invari- 
ably break up. wherever possible, the nesting places of the English 
sparrow. 80 that after all the bird argument against the gipsy-moth 
work becomes unimportant. 
THE INVESTIGATION OF THE WORK BY THE WKTTEK DURING 1897. 
Although the writer was reasonably familiar with the conditions 
existing in the infested region and the results which had been accom- 
plished, as well as the methods used by the committee and the means 
by which these results had been brought about, by virtue o\' two pre 
vious trips to Boston in the summers of L894 and IS'.)."), as well as from 
a familiarity with the published results ot' the work and from informa- 
tion gained by occasional meetings with the consulting entomologist 
and the director of the field work at Washington. 1>. ('.. and during 
the summer meetings of the American Association tor the Advance- 
ment of Science, he saw the absolute necessity for a careful investiga- 
tion throughout an entire season before expressing such an opinion ot' 
