Page 236 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
DOWNYWOODPECKER
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their deadly destmctiveness, and partly because man is so weak in resisting them. The annual cost of the fight made against them, in sprays and labor and apparatus, has- been estimated at $8,250,000. And what do the birds do to the codling moth, —when there are any birds left alive tooperate? Thetestimony
comes from all over the United States, and it is worth while to cite it briefly as a fair sample of the work of the birds upon this particu- larly deadly pest. These facts and quotations are from the "Yearbook of the De- ]3artment of Agriculture," for 1911.
The Downy Woodpecker is the champion tree-protec- tor, and also one of the greatest enemies of the cod- ling moth. When man is quite unable to find the hid- den larvae. Downy locates it every time, and digs it out. Itextractswormsfrom young apples so skillfully
thatoftenthefruitisnotpermanentlyinjured. Mr.F.M.Websterre- ports that the labors of this bird "afford actual and immediate relief to theinfectedfruit." Testimonyinfavorofthedownywoodpeckerhas come from New York, New Jersey, Texas and California, "and no fewer than twenty larvae have been taken from a single stomach."
TaketheRed-ShaftedFlickervs.thecodlingmoth. Mr.A.P.Martin, of Petaluma, Cal., states that during the early spring months (of 1890) they were seen by hundreds in his orchard, industriously examining the trunks and larger limbs of the fruit trees ; and he also found great num- bers of them around sheds where he stored his winter apples and pears. As the result of several hours' search, Mr. Martin found only one worm, and this one escaped only by accident, for several of the birds had been within a quarter of an inch of it. "So eager are woodpeckers in search of codling moths that they have often been known to riddle the shingle traps and paper bands which are placed to attract the larvae about to
spin cocoons.