Now, is a federal strong-arm migratory bird law needed for such birds or not?  Let the owners of orchards and forests make answer.

THE CASE OF THE CODLING MOTH AND CURCULIO.—­The codling moth and curculio are twin terrors to apple-growers, partly because of their deadly destructiveness, 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 to operate?  The testimony 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 particularly deadly pest.  These facts and quotations are from the “Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture,” for 1911.

[Illustration:  DOWNY WOODPECKER]

The Downy Woodpecker is the champion tree-protector, and also one of the greatest enemies of the codling moth.  When man is quite unable to find the hidden larvae, Downy locates it every time, and digs it out.  It extracts worms from young apples so skillfully that often the fruit is not permanently injured.  Mr. F.M.  Webster reports that the labors of this bird “afford actual and immediate relief to the infected fruit.”  Testimony in favor of the downy woodpecker has come from New York, New Jersey, Texas and California, “and no fewer than twenty larvae have been taken from a single stomach.”

Take the Red-Shafted Flicker vs. the codling moth.  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 numbers 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.”

Behold the array of birds that devour the larvae of the codling moth to an important extent.

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BIRDS THAT DEVOUR THE CODLING MOTH

Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens). 
Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus). 
Texan Woodpecker (Dryobates scalaris bairdi). 
Red-Headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus). 
Red-Shafted Flicker (Colaptes cafer collaris). 
Pileated Woodpecker (Phloeotomus pileatus). 
Kingbird (Tyrranus tyrranus). 
Western Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis). 
Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata).