The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-05
ADANGEROUS CITY
 INSECT PEST
Native Birds Have Protect
 ed Country Districts

Even more deadly to our splendid elrns than the elm-Ieaf beetle is the leopard moth, an imported pest which has become abundant during the last five years, only in cities and large towns. This is because the English sparrow has there driven out most of the insectivorous birds which would have preyed upon it. In country re- gions, even though the native birds enough to keep this dreadful pest from gaining a foothold. This is one of the most striking concrete examples of the economics value of wild birds.
 Unless we can devise methods to protect and attract 10 the cities the native insectIvorous birds, notably the woodpeckers and their allies, our elns and other shade trees will be devas- tated more and more. Owe 1erS in the smaller towns may well appreciate the value of the birds that they still have, and take care lest, through indiffer- ence, the same calamity may come up- on them It Is problem, thus, for city and country alike.
 No spraying methods can affect this pest, because the larvae. which do the damage, burrow in under the bark, and there in secret girdIe the tree. The first that we know of the destruction Is when we see the tree dying at the top. Each of these dead limbs is gird ed, and during gales they blow off, endangerfng the lives of people passing beneath It is only a ques- ton of time when the tree mus, die. One larvae or boref IS often enough to kill a young elm.
 It is practically impossible for man to do much in way of reachire and the wood, often eighty feet from he ground. The real expert for this work is the woodpecker. The little spot known but we also have the flicker, and sometimes the hairy .woodpecker. The nutha tches also are useful in this work. Just watch our little hammerer elm. Systematically he traverses the trunk and branches, tapping and sounding. He knows that when the wood rings hollow he aas struck the burrow Following it up, he hears the drum-beat muffIed where lies the soft worm. With a few vigorous strokes the strong bill pierces the dead wood into the chamber, and the ma rauder Is dragged out and eaten, luscious morseI. MT. J. ". Cha pman, of the Boston Park Commission, has photographed this work of the wood peckers, and he declares that they are doing efficient work in destroying the leoFard moth.
 For nearly two years the larva bores eats and grows, except during the win ter sleep. Then it goes into the pu- pal stage, soon emerges as a motn, lays clusters of eggs on the bark of the tree which hatch in two weeks,
 
 Into the tree. During these latter stages the various summer insectivor- Ous birds, probably nearly all kinds, devour the sluggish 'leopard-spotted'' whftish moths, glean up the egg-clus- bNrg or feast on the exposed tender larvae before they can get under cover
 In Europe this pest does some dam age in cities, but not as much as W tn us, for there the birds are better ap- preciated and cared for than here. Tn Germany there is a Government Com mission to protect and increase the native birds by a system which in cludes feeding the birds, preparing nesting-si+ +es, ex+erminatfrg enemies such as the house sparrow, securing public cooperation through education- aI meth ods, and the ike. Such work should be made by law a function of our so-cailed game commissions, or Of some other resronsibIe aeenc'es, such as State Agricultural colleges. If the thousands of dollars wasted in inn porting foreign gane-birds, with the sole result, in many cases. Of but d. ing political machines. could have been used somewhat with the German anirit and ideal. we should have more