12 THE, AUD .U UB ON B20 Ei a aie 
crow, grackle and English sparrow could easily be accounted for. But there 
were many others classed as “undesirables”, which had no immediate family 
cares, as in the case of the cowbird, notorious non-nesters. Their most 
active destruction of locusts could not be assigned to the unusual stress of 
the nesting season, yet they remained to the last locust in goodly and 
unusual numbers. 
Silent Waters has its full quota of many birds, but never, except in 
flocking seasons, has there been such a concentration of many species 
engaged in so small an area. Identification was simple enough; among 
them were all of the better known insectivorous species coincident with a 
balanced bird sanctuary. The astonishing thing was the presence of so 
many birds erroneously classed as “undesirables”. Popularly supposed to 
be harmful to man’s interest, it was interesting to see them here, daily and 
for weeks unremittingly toiling to exterminate the locust. There they were, 
at all times, from dawn to twilight, on the ground, in the bushes and the 
trees, gorging on locust. There were the sparrow hawk, both the black- 
and yellow-billed cuckoo, red-headed woodpecker, blue jay, crow, cowbird, 
bronzed grackle, many English sparrows and starlings. 
The smaller birds seemed to have difficulcy in swallowing so large a 
morsel as the locust, but in all cases there was apparent a constant gulping, 
a trimming of wings and craning of necks to gobble down other victims. 
The birds seemed unafraid of the human presence, continuing lustily to 
prove their most harmful side to the locust. Daily we noted the distinct 
lessening of the hoarse chorus, until the day came when but a few locusts 
were left to carry on the irritating tune. These, too, soon disappeared and 
the grove again became silent and deserted. 
In the meantime another swarm attained volume on the wooded hills. 
The birds, including the “undesirables”, followed up their advantage of 
a continued easy food supply and, transferring their activity to the hills, 
remained until these, too, became silent. Still another swarm established 
itself in a detached woodland on the plateau, also to fall an easy prey to 
the faithful performance of the birds, the insectivorous and the “undesir- 
ables”. The latter by far outnumbered the other birds, hence a good deal 
of the credit of extermination accrues to them. At last the locust chorus 
in Silent Waters died away, though others could still ke heard in woodlands 
hereabouts. In the final check-up also we noted but isolated damaged twigs, 
where locusts had laid their eggs, while elsewhere the woodlands were 
badly damaged and sorely seared as by fire blight. 
Unfortunately, time did not permit of leisurely observation or definite 
measurements of the number of birds and species involved in the destruc- 
tion of the locust on Silent Waters. The most apparent thing after the 
locust and bird concentration was the great mass of locust wing's scattered 
everywhere that attracted the attention of all visitors. Here at least a 
sort of measurement was possible that might indicate the density of the 
invasion. Sampling random plots of ground a foot square in the drives, 
grass and under the trees revealed a minimum of five and a maximum of 
twenty-three single locust wings. This would indicate a density of fourteen 
locusts per square foot. Inspection of the lower shrubs and branches 
