822 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
MIDGE. DESTROYERS. YELLOW-BIRD’S OPERATIONS. 
it even when it is swayed to and fro by the wind, and with its 
bill it parts the chaff from the kernel as represented, plate ii, fig. 
9 at * and *f, piiking off and devouring the larvae to which it 
thus gains access. When the larvae are yet small, before the end 
of June, it begins to feed upon them ; and if the wheat is badly 
infested, in a short time afterwards, a large flock of these birds, 
both male and female, become collected upon it and return to it 
day after day. And after feasting upon these larvae till their 
wants are satisfied, if the farmer be so slovenly as to have allowed 
a patch of thistles to grow in the vicinity, the birds fly from the 
wheat to them and end their repast each day by picking those seeds 
therefrom which are ripened and ready to be scattered abroad by 
the winds. Thus industriously does this little creature appear 
to exert itself in different ways for man’s benefit. 
Formerly our farmers from seeing such numbers of these yellow- 
birds upon the wheat, picking the heads, supposed it was the 
grain which they were devouring ; and I have known boys to be 
stationed as sentries around the wheat fields to stone and drive 
these birds away. I believe it was first announced to the public 
in my previous Essay that it was the larvae of the midge and not 
the wheat that these birds were in pursuit of. In more than one 
instance I have since seen the same fact set forth in some of our 
agricultural periodicals as a new and important discovery; some¬ 
times with the further statement that there were two different 
birds which feed thus on the midge larvae. The female of the 
yellow-bird being of a greyish brown color, so very unlike the gay 
yellow and black plumage of the male, has, in such instances, 
been mistaken for a distinct species. 
This bird never attempts to obtain all the larvae from the wheat 
heads; it only opens those florets in which the larvae are the most 
numerous, namely, the outer florets of the headlets, seldom, if 
ever, disturbing the inner florets. It parts the bearded chaff from 
the kernel of these outer florets and devours the larvae which are 
thus exposed, leaving the kernel in its place, sometimes with one 
or two larvae remaining hid between the kernel and the inner 
chaff. Its operations seem to be of a most, purely benevolent charac- 
er, doing for man the best service in its power. Its aim appears 
to be to thin out and diminish these larvae from the wheat heads 
to such an extent that part of the kernels — those which it leaves 
wholly untouched — will be able to fill and'become good wheat. 
