6 
Among the trees, shrubs and vines found here which fur- 
nish food for birds in the shape of berries or seeds at certain 
seasons of the year are the common barberry, Northern fox 
grape, poison ivy, wild yellow plum, wild red cherry, choke- 
cherry, English cherry, black raspberry, high blackberry, 
garden raspberry, wild rose, common apple, common red cur- 
rant, white ash, red mulberry, white oak, scarlet oak, white 
pine, pitch pine, hemlock and Virginia juniper or red cedar. 
The orchard itself is a typical old orchard, such as is often 
found on small farms. It has suffered greatly from neglect. 
Two-thirds of the original trees have died or are in the last 
stages of dissolution. This is largely the result of neglect 
and improper pruning. Dead limbs and hollows in the trees 
have offered nesting places for such birds as the wren, wood- 
pecker and bluebird. 
For three years, from 1891 to 1893 inclusive, the trees 
were trimmed and cared for. They were sprayed or banded 
to protect them from cankerworms, and the “nests” of the 
tent caterpillar were removed. The result was a scanty yield 
of apples from most of the trees. One or two bore quite 
plentifully. 
In order to observe the effect of the feeding of birds in the 
orchard, no care was taken in 1894 to protect the trees. Dur- 
ing that year the tent caterpillars were very numerous in 
the vicinity, and it became evident also that a great increase 
in the number of cankerworms was taking place in the 
neighborhood. Although these insects made considerable 
inroads upon the trees, they did not seriously injure the 
foliage anywhere except in one or two instances. No at- 
tempt had been made previous to 1895 to foster or encourage 
the birds in the neighborhood, except that a few nesting 
boxes were put up in 1894, which were occupied in one case 
by a family of wrens and in another by the English or house 
sparrow. We were careful, however, to destroy the nests of 
this sparrow. In the fall of 1894 it was noticed that im- 
mense numbers of the wingless females of the fall canker- 
worm were ascending nearly all the trees and depositing their 
eggs; also, that the eggs of the tent caterpillar moths were 
