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OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES. 
One Year 25 Cents 
Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Appleton, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class atter, May 16. 1904. at Appleton, Wis., uuder the act of Congress of Mar, A 79. 
VOL. X. 
JANUARY, 1908. 
No. 7 
The Potato-Bug Bird. 
Not a very poetical name for a very 
beautiful bird, but it is one that ought 
to appeal to every agriculturalist- Do 
you know the bird? 
Well, anyway, you 
know the bug. 
Before 1859 there 
was a striped beetle 
living on sand burrs 
at the base ot the 
mountains in Col¬ 
orado. They called 
it the Colorado bee¬ 
tle. One evil day 
the beetle discov¬ 
ered that potatoes 
are better for bee¬ 
tles tli an sand 
burrs. Then the 
beetle began to 
travel and by 1874 
he was found wher¬ 
ever there are po¬ 
tatoes. 
It is no exagger¬ 
ation to say that every year $100,000 is 
spent for Paris Green to fight this pest. 
Then there is the cost of labor to say 
nothing of the curtailment of the crop 
caused by the damage to the vines. And 
then there are the back-aches. Per¬ 
haps no job is more distasteful to the 
farmer boy than “bugging” the potatoes^ 
unless it is turning the grindstone to 
sharpen the sickle of the mower. And 
it is more than likely that both jobs will 
fall on the same day; a good dav to go 
fishing at that. 
Now is it not 
wonder f u 1 that 
with the spread of 
the potato bug, a 
beau tiful bird 
should have devel¬ 
oped a taste for it? 
This is always Na¬ 
ture’s way. For 
every species there 
is its check. When 
circumstances are 
such that a certain 
species prospers 
then the species 
which feeds upon 
it will prosper, too. 
It is onlv when 
%/ 
man destroys the 
balance of things 
bv cultivation that 
pests are produced- 
That the Rose-breasted Grosbeak does 
feed on potato bugs has been established 
bv thousands of observers from all parts 
of the country. One ofthese is Professor 
Beal of the United States Department of 
Agriculture. The following is taken 
from his report: 
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBE A C 
