HOUSE AND GARDEN 
November, 
1913 
the other hand, he derives great benefit from their visits. 
Every moment that they are with him they are at work, and 
their labor means much to the welfare of his flowers, his 
vegetables and his orchard. 
If you will go to his place some summer morning and quietly 
take a seat in the apple orchard, you may see what the birds 
are really doing for him. One of the first you are sure to en¬ 
counter is the chipping sparrow. In fact there is scarcely a 
garden or lawn in the eastern or central United States where it 
may not be found at this season. It is a very quiet, demure, 
little bird that keeps much out of sight. Look sharp, though, 
and you will see it slipping along through the grass at times 
more like a mouse than a bird. It is exceedingly active, and 
constantly it is striking out with its bill as it seizes ants, beetles 
and plant lice, which infest the vegetation. Out in the garden 
it hops with alacrity along the rows of vegetables. It eats the 
worms it finds on the leaves of the beets, the caterpillars that 
destroy the cabbage, and it greatly enjoys the coddling moth, 
the leaf hoppers, and in fact almost any form of insect life 
which it can discover. 
Everyone knows of the widespread devastation caused to 
The downy woodpecker is found in every old apple orchard as well as about the other 
trees, where he searches out insects’ eggs and larvae 
A yellow-billed cuckoo at its nest. This species is a persistent enemy of the well- 
known tent caterpillar, of which it destroys countless numbers 
shade and forest trees in New England of recent years by the 
gipsy moth, and how millions of dollars have been expended in 
fighting this national plague. It is in the larva or caterpillar 
stage that the moth does its mischief, by eating the foliage from 
the trees. But woe to the gipsy caterpillar that is spied by the 
chipping sparrow! No cat ever enjoyed a canary more than 
the “chippy" loves this juicy morsel. Some years ago, when 
scientific experts were experimenting with gipsy .moths in cap¬ 
tivity in order to learn, if possible, some adequate means of 
destroying them in wholesale numbers, their work was actually 
retarded by the chipping sparrows which constantly broke 
through the nets of the enclosures to get at the caterpillars. 
A lisping, plaintive, long-drawn pe-ci-zve reaches your ear, and 
turning you behold on a dead limb nearby a bird somewhat 
larger than our little neighbor on the ground. It is light be¬ 
neath, dark gray above, and it sits very erect on its percb. A 
moment later it darts suddenly away, makes a quick turn or two 
in the air, snaps its bill with an audible click, and returns to its 
lookout tower. It is the pewee, and it is playing its part in the 
great economy of Nature. All day long, if you should find time 
all their wild prowess and eagerness to kill once they cross the 
threshold into the yard. There are untold thousands of these 
animals which have been abandoned and are to-day living in 
a half-wild state in thickets and about outhouses. These cats 
are constantly alert and ever on the watch for birds, day and 
night, through the year. It is exceedingly rare to find a cat that 
will not kill a bird if the opportunity comes. The fact that one 
is well cared for and fed to the utmost does not in the least 
change its nature in this regard. They play great havoc in 
spring with young birds which have just left the nest and are 
not yet able to fly. In short, the man who would have birds 
plentiful about his place must use strenuous efiforts to decrease 
the number of these night-prowling, soft-footed scourges of 
the feathered tribe. Boys, sparrows, Italians and cats must 
be kept under control if the birds are to be saved. 
Entertaining one’s friends is one of the greatest joys of any 
household, but to do this continuously on a large scale generally 
taxes not only the endurance but the means of the man in 
ordinary circumstances. The good man with the open house 
at Montclair, however, is never wearied a moment by his 
feathered guests, and the simple fare which he provides for 
them in winter, in the form of crumbs, suet, seeds and cracked 
grain, does not 
add heavily to 
the month’s 
expenses. On 
Soon after it leaves the nest the young cuckoo will commence his endless and effective 
warfare against noxious caterpillars about the lawn trees 
