JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Vol. II Washington, D. C., September 21, 1914 No. 6 
BIRDS AS CARRIERS OF THE CHESTNUT-BLIGHT 
FUNGUS 1 
By F. D. Heald and R. A. Studhalter, 
Agents , Office of Investigations in Forest Pathology , Bureau of Plant Industry 
INTRODUCTION 
Various writers have expressed the opinion that birds play a part in 
the dissemination of the chestnut-blight fungus, Endothia parasitica 
(Murr.) And. Since most of these statements were not based on any 
published investigations, the work described in this paper (6) 2 was under¬ 
taken in order to furnish positive evidence as to whether birds actually 
do carry spores of this fungus. 
Birds do not seem to have been extensively accused of spreading 
plant diseases. Evidence has been presented by Waite (15) that pear- 
blight is disseminated by humming birds. The same writer (16) also 
gives a brief statement of the part played by sapsuckers and brings out 
the probability of long-distance distribution of blight germs by birds. 
It has been stated (7) that the organism causing the olive-knot disease 
is carried by birds. Johnston (8) has expressed the belief, based upon 
some experiments which he conducted, that turkey buzzards are instru¬ 
mental in spreading the bud-rot of the coconut. In all of these instances 
the causal organisms are bacteria. Only a single reference has come to 
our attention in which birds have been charged with spreading fungous 
diseases, except in the case of the chestnut blight, as will be stated later. 
In a consideration of the die-back (Naemospora) of peaches, Massee (10, 
p. 449) says that “probably the conidia are conveyed on the feet of birds 
from diseased to healthy shoots/' 
HISTORICAL REVIEW 
The first article published by Murrill (13) on chestnut blight refers to 
the possible relation of birds to the dissemination of the disease, as fol¬ 
lows: “And from these numerous yellowish brown pustules millions of 
1 Investigations conducted in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Chestnut Tree Blight Commission. 
2 Bibliographic citations in parentheses refer to “ Literature cited,” pp. 421-422. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Dept, of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
Vol. II, No. 6 
Sept. 31, 1914 
