Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-11-24
Birds as Friends to the Farmer.
BY DIR. rR1MRLE. NEWARK. nj

BY DR. TRIMBLE, NEWARK, n. ].
ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE FARMERS
CLUB, n. Y, Nov. 2D, 1869.
Any one who wishes to learn the
condition Of the fruit crops of the
country can have no better place thar
the Washington Market of New York
Ounces, the late pears, and the win,
ter supply Of apples are now there
Those whose eyes have been educated
to see blemishes upon fruit will be as
tonished at finding so many. The
most apparent are those in the apples
and caused by the apple moth. This
| insect is the second in importance oi
all the enemies of our fruits. This
moth, like most other moths and but.
terffies, increases rapidly. Some de.
posit several hundred eggs at brood
! and there are two broods of the apple
moth each year. The rules of arith-
metic would show us how such a rate
of increase would so multiply all these
enemies that all the apples of the
country would soon be appropriated
by them-none left for US. But this
insect, like most others, has its checks.
The weather sometimes comes to our
relief. Some insects feed upon other
insects, and many are destroyed by
parasites. But I wish to speak now
particularly of the birds as our friends
in protecting US, to great extent,
against the dangerous accumulation
of insect enemies. Here is bunch OF
dozen birds, already picked, bought
in the Washington Market. Two of
them are the downy woodpecker. This
is one of the woodpeeker family that
remains with US all winter, and like
most of the others is exclusively in
sectivorUus. Here are some specimens
of apples, like millions and millions of
others every year. perforated through
and through by an insect, until it is
out of shape, insipid, and almost
worthless. This is the work of the
caterpiller, after feeding to maturity,
leaves the apple and seeks place of
concealment in which to spin its
cocoon. If the tree hes scales of bark
large enough to suit its purpose, it
will take refuge there, and there this
downy woodpecker finds it. Here are
scales Of bark from apple and pear
trees, under which the remains of the
cocoons of this insect may be seen,
and on the other side of each you may
observe hole leading directly to the
middle of that cocoon. The hole was
made by one of these downy wood
peckers, and through it he has taken
the caterpillar that had destroyed an
apple. l have long known that this
terrible enemy of our fruits had its en-
envy amongst the birds; but until /
found in the stomach of one of these
downy wOOdpeckers several of these
caterpillars was at loss to know TO
which of the many birds we were so
much indebted. After longand patient
watching, / was able to identify this
one-caught in the act. There is
probably nothing more wonderful in
Nature than the ingenuity of many
birds in finding their insect prey.
This one finds this concealed caterpil-
lar not by seeking it-that is impOssi-
BILE; not by smell nor by any motion
it is as quiet as a mummy; neither
by instinct-the bird is American, the
insect a foreign importation. No, he
finds it by sounding; he taps all scales
alike, but stops to make hole through
the one under which the worm lies
we should have more and better ap-
pies and pears; but, like all the other
wOOdpeckers, it is diminishing in
numbers in proportion as the woods Of
the country are cut away. And, sad
to tell, the few that are left of this
most valuable of all our small birds
are sold in the markets Of this city,
ready picked, for four cents apiece.
Here are the heads of five cedar
birds, sometimes called cherry-birds.
In consequence of the bad name this
bird has, from the circumstance that
il will sometimes take cherries, have
given it a thorough investigation. /
have killed many; more than / ever
will again. In the stomach of one
found several cankerworms, so perfect
as to be readily identified, and the
heads of enough more to make thirty
six in all. Think of that! One cedar
bird taking at single meal thirty-Aix
cankerworms- This insect has for
half century been perfect scourge
of the apple orchards of great part of
New England, and has at times seri-
ously threatened other sections of the
country. This little bird is a gross
feeder, and continues in fOcks till
near midsummer. Where insects ap-
pear In great numbers, as the canker
and other spanworms sometimes do,
it will come suddenly in large fiocks, |
and feed there day after day till the
pest is subdued. And this beautiful
little friend of ours-the second best
of all the birds-is sold by bushels in |
this market both fall and spring: and |
no one, not even Berg, to cry shame. /
In the stomachs nf these cedar-birds 1
found nothing but cedar and iuniper
peculiar smell of the fat /
ter was very perceptible in the stom- 4
Rchs of two. The lovers of gin will I
be enemies of this bird in /
future; but, when it is known that all 4
the juniper berries used in this coun-
try come from Europe, it may mollify /
the wrath of the gin drinkers. Here /
ls the head of the American shrike, or
butcher bird. Its stomach was filed I
10 repletion with mass of insects, 7
but so comminuted as TO be undistin-
guishable except by a microscope.
This bird, it is said, will transfix In
sects on thorns or briers, after satisfy
ing his present wants, so as to keep
hem till hungry.
Here is q meadow-lark. You will
observe how long and strong the beak
g. He has fed to repletion on a spe-
,ies of reduvious insect, like the squash
,r pumpkin-bug. In all examinations
If the stomaehs of larks have found
Insects only, and nearly always but
)ne kind of an insect at time. In