8 
trees. Not only were the chickadees attracted to the orchard 
in large numbers, but other birds came also. A pair of downy 
woodpeckers and two pairs of white-breasted nuthatches were 
frequent visitors, and a few brown creepers came occasionally. 
All these paid frequent visits to the meat and suet, and also 
thoroughly inspected the trees in search of insect food. They 
made excursions also to the trees in the neighborhood, but 
most of their attention was confined to the orchard in which 
the bait was suspended. As they became more accustomed to 
Mr. Bailey’s presence they grew quite tame, and could be 
viewed at a distance of a few feet. Indeed, chickadees fre- 
quently alighted on his person and occasionally took food 
from his hand. He was able to determine accurately (with- 
out killing them) what they were feeding upon, and was 
soon convinced that they were destroying the eggs of the 
cankerworm moth in large numbers, as well as the hiber- 
nating larvee and pupee of other insects injurious to trees. 
To determine how many eggs a single chickadee would eat, 
a few birds were killed and their stomach contents examined, 
with surprising results. There was no difficulty in identi- 
fying the eggs of the cankerworm moth which were found in 
the birds’ stomachs, as a great portion of the shells remained 
intact. The other insect contents of the stomachs were iden- 
tified for me through the kindness of Mr. A. H. Kirkland, 
then assistant entomologist to the State Board of Agricul- 
ture, who made the examinations. Although it was impos- 
sible in all cases to learn with certainty the species to which 
certain insects belonged, it was evident that they could be - 
referred to genera known to be of injurious habits. 
I take the following from Mr. Bailey’s notes: — 
Number of Eggs of the Fall Cankerworm found in Stomachs of 
Chickadees. 
Eggs. 
INGHL, 273 
No.2, 261 
No; 3; 4 é : ; F : ; : : « 26 
No. 4, . : : i . 2 : F , . 278 
