6 TH EAL DSB ONS) Be ris Eat le 
ORIOLES, both Baltimore and 
orchard, eat tent caterpillars 
gypsy moth caterpillars, weevils, 
aphids, grasshoppers, borers. 
REDWING BLACKBIRDS, nor- 
mally seed eaters and sometimes 
field pests particularly in the South, 
gorge on caterpillars and insect 
larvae when there is a surge of 
insect hatch. 
COWBIRDS are in bad repute 
because they make other birds 
hatch and rear their young, 
but they eat weed seed by the 
pound and pasture insects by the 
thousand, grasshoppers, locust, 
beetles, flies, wasps, mosquitoes. 
THE ROSE-BREASTED GROS- 
BEAK is the gardener’s special 
friend; it eats potato bugs, cucum- 
ber beetles, leaf beetles of all kinds, 
tent caterpillars, moths, scale in- 
sects, army worms, even cabbage 
butterflies. 
AND ALL BIRDS feed their 
nestlings vast quantities of insects, 
grubs, worms, caterpillars and 
beetles. Insect food is high in pro- 
tein and vitamin D, essential for 
the quick growth and development 
of young birds. Most birds bring 
off their first broods of nestlings 
just at the time the first big hatch 
of insects comes. So the birds are 
essential to keep the insects in 
check from the start. Those time- 
tables in nature are eternally 
marvelous. 
THAT IS WHY the gardener who 
knows his ecological ABC’s says 
that too many pesticides are bad 
medicine in the garden, on the 
farm and in the woodland. That is 
why one of the most reassuring 
sounds on any April morning, or 
in May or June for that matter, is 
the chorus of birdsong that greets 
the sunrise. Woodlands have sur- 
vived countless attacks by gypsy 
moths. Vineyards have survived 
Japanese beetles. But not even the 
most cloistered city dweller could 
long survive an end to birdsong in 
the springtime. 
THAT IS WHY I listen for the 
peepers every April, and watch 
for the red-wings in the willows 
and the robins in our home pasture. 
Copyright 1972 by The New 
York Times Company and 
reprinted by permission. 
