Identifier: annualreport891901021newy (find matches)
Title: Annual report
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: New York (State). Forest, Fish and Game Commission
Subjects: Forests and forestry Fisheries Game and game-birds
Publisher: (Albany, N.Y. : The Commission)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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this family, and there are few areas of any considerable size thatdo not have their complement. They are as a family very small, many of thembeing no bigger than the common house wren, and the largest ones only exceedingthe bluebird by a trifle. There can be no finer tribute to the usefulness of this family than that ofDr. Elliot Coues, who says: With tireless industry do the warblers befriend the human race; theirunconscious zeal plays due part in the nice adjustment of Natures forces,helping to bring about the balance of vegetable and insect life, without whichagriculture would be in vain. They visit the orchard when the apple andpear, the peach, plum and cherry are in bloom, seeming to revel amid the sweet-scented and delicately-tinted blossoms, but never forgetting their good work-They peer into the crevices of the bark, scrutinize each leaf, and explore the veryheart of the buds, to detect, drag forth and destroy those tiny creatures, singly Birds of the Colorado Valley, p. 147.
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BLACKBURNIAN WARBLERUpper Figure Male, Lower Figure Female BIRDS AS CONSERVATORS OF THE FOREST. 257 insignificant, collectively a scourge, which prey upon the hopes of the fruitgrower,and which, if undisturbed, would bring his care to naught.* The food of the warbler, with the exception of the few ground-feeding species,consists of such insects as are found upon the trunks, branches, leaves and flowersof trees, mostly those of the forest, though many species of these birds visit theorchard for food, and sometimes nest there. As might be expected, small beetles,ants, and caterpillars, with some scales and plant-lice, make up the bulk of thefood of the tree-feeding species. The three elements which appear most prominentlyin the stomachs are beetles, ants and caterpillars. These are remarkably constantelements of the food, and are found in most of the stomachs examined. Thebeetles are largely of the family of snout-beetles (Rhyncophora), all of which areinjurious to some plant, and many

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