president of the State Agricultural College, or by the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. In that way you could select people who would not abuse the rights granted them. In that way you would perhaps stimulate an interest in ornithology which might otherwise be suppressed. Some of you may have boys who take an interest in ornithology, and have no inclination to work in any other direction. Now, if a boy is inclined to work in ornithology or any other branch of natural history, is a careful boy, and will spend his time in the study of the birds of his particular region, it is a shame to stop that boy, and not allow him to investigate. He may become an eminent naturalist. Therefore, I think that I would change the law so that there will not be so much difficulty in obtaining permits. Of course I personally know nothing about this trouble which naturalists have; I only get it second-hand.

Mr. BANCROFT of Chesterfield. We have certainly had an exceedingly interesting and instructive address this afternoon, and I wish to move that this Board extend a cordial vote of thanks to Dr. Warren.

The motion was seconded by Mr. Everett, and unanimously carried.

Mr. KINGSBURY of Spencer. I would like to inquire of the doctor what would be the result if the English sparrows ate grain that was soaked in a strong solution of salt and water? Would it injure them, or not?

Dr. WARREN. I do not know that any experiments have been made in that line. I cannot answer that question.

Mr. KINGSBURY. I have seen it recommended as a method of destroying the English sparrow. I know that some birds will be destroyed by eating salt.

Dr. WARREN. I do not know. It is said the mockingbird will be destroyed by eating salt; but I know a gentleman who fed a mocking-bird with food heavily salted, and it did not affect the bird. But how salt would affect the English sparrow, I am unable to say.

Mr. J. D. EATON. Will the gentleman give the peculiarities of the snowy owl, which is one of the largest species? Dr. WARREN. The snowy owl is a resident of the arctic regions. This bird differs from most owls, in the fact that

it nests on the ground. Owls as a rule build in holes in trees, or in the deserted nests of other birds. The snowy owl occurs in Massachusetts or in the United States only as a winter resident. Sometimes this bird is abundant in different parts of the United States in the winter, especially in the more northern parts. They have been found as far South as Long Island during excessively severe winters, in flocks of considerable numbers, fifteen or twenty. The snowy owl feeds on rabbits, hares, and a species of grouse somewhat similar to the common partridge. The snowy owl is one of the destructive owls. He preys occasionally on mice and occasionally on other noxious rodents; but these birds are found in such small numbers in this country that it is not worth while to urge their destruction. In fact, their market value is such that it is not necessary. The specimen I have here is considerably marked with black. The full-plumaged adult male is almost entirely white. I have seen a specimen which was black only on the top of the head and the tip of the wing. Pure white specimens are, however, exceedingly rare.

Mr. W. H. BOWKER. I think the doctor in his remarks with reference to teaching boys has struck upon a very important branch of this discussion. My farm was overrun this last summer with woodchucks. I offered twenty-five cents for old woodchucks and ten cents for young ones, and I gave it not only to my own boy but to five or six boys in the neighborhood. The result was that I got any number of woodchucks. Some of them I presume came from my neighbors' premises, but it encouraged the boys a great deal. Next summer I propose to get my boy an air rifle, and teach him to use it in shooting sparrows. I have a friend in Boston who amuses himself in the winter time by shooting them, and he gathers large numbers of them. I think this Board ought to recommend to the State Board of Education that they teach our children in the public schools, especially in the country districts, something that is practical in reference to natural history. I think that we ought to have a little museum connected with every country school, that shall contain the eggs of the common birds, and and that shall also contain specimens of sparrows and other

birds which we want to exterminate, and also birds which we want to preserve, so that they shall be taught what birds to kill and what not to kill. A few lessons of that kind given every year would excite an interest, and I think be the means of exterminating obnoxious birds and animals, and preserving those which it is advantageous to preserve.

Mr. NATHAN EDSON of Barnstable. I would like to ask the doctor if he can give us some good plan by which we can exterminate the crow with poison.

Dr. WARREN. I have never had any opportunity for extended experience in destroying crows with poisons; but I know it is a common custom in different parts of Pennsylvania in the spring for farmers to destroy crows by taking an egg, breaking the shell at one end, and dropping into the orifice some strychnine. I have known a single egg treated in this way to kill three crows. In this case the egg was put on top of a stone in a field three hundred yards away from the house, and in less than three-quarters of an hour I saw three crows visit it, and they all died inside of an hour after the egg was placed there. In winter, when the crows come in large flocks to some favorite roosting place, you might poison them in this way if it was not cold enough to freeze the eggs.

Mr. J. H. ROWLEY of Egremont. I would like to inquire if our crows are migratory.

Dr. WARREN. The crow is a resident bird; that is, a bird that is found in a given locality during every month of the year. If food is abundant on a particular farm, the crows will live on that farm the year round; if food is scarce, then necessity compels them to go elsewhere in order to find it.

Mr. FITCH. I simply want to say one word in support of the suggestion of my friend Bowker. I had occasion to go into a certain high school some few months ago, and I thought I would take with me something that I might use. As I went along I picked a few leaves of the red oak and white oak, a few leaves from an apple tree, and perhaps half a dozen other kinds. After I had been in the school a little while, and had heard a recitation wherein certain of the pupils named certain of the stars, Regulus, Arcturus, Aldebaran, and so on, I took out a few leaves, held them

up, and asked how many could tell me the names of the trees that those leaves came from. Nobody answered. I said, "Can any of you tell me?". Several of the boys called out the name of a school-mate, and said "Give them to him." I handed that boy a bunch of the leaves, and he named every one of them correctly. I believe he was the only boy in that school who could do it. At another time I took four grains in my hand. They were the common grains that we raise, — wheat, rye, oats and barley. I gave them to a certain number of boys, but not one of them could tell the different kinds. A few could tell one or two of the kinds, but not one could tell all of them. You are teaching the boys and girls in your high schools all over the State so they can tell you the difference between the gerund and gerundive in Latin every time, can give a free translation of a line of Virgil, and go through every change in the grammar; but take up a leaf and ask them whether that leaf came from an apple tree or an oak tree, and they cannot tell you. They do not know half as much about that as they do about Greek. Are we teaching the children in our

schools as we ought to?

The following preamble and resolution was introduced:

Whereas, It has been clearly demonstrated, by post-mortem dissection and field observation, that most of the hawks and owls are highly beneficial to the farmer and fruit grower, we, members of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture and farmers assembled at Worcester, Dec. 2, 1890,

Resolve, That, in our opinion, the birds of prey, or the hawks and owls, with rare exceptions, are of great benefit to the farmer and fruit grower, and should be protected. We respectfully urge our legislators to refrain from the passage of any law which will have for its object the destruction of these birds.

This resolution was unanimously accepted, and adopted. The CHAIRMAN. There are some questions in the question. box that will perhaps bring out discussion on some points of interest which are not very dissimilar to the one on which · we have been engaged.

Secretary SESSIONS. I find this question in the box: "What is the prospect for success in the campaign against

the gypsy moth?" Mr. Rawson, I think, can answer that question better than any one else.

Mr. W. W. RAWSON of Arlington. It is rather early in the day to answer that question, as the commission have had only the experience of a part of one season. When the commissioners were appointed last March, only one of them had had any experience with the gypsy moth. We have gone on experimenting this season so far, and are at work at present destroying the eggs as fast as possible. The eggs are in secluded places, under the eaves of houses, in holes in old rotten trees, and underneath the branches. We have now about forty men at work hunting them out and destroying them. From about the first of May until the first of August we had something over a hundred men, spraying the trees and killing the creatures in that way. The result has been that none of the trees have had the leaves eaten off

of them as they had in the preceding seasons. We took as the basis of our experiments the experience of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Amherst, or of the professors there, in spraying trees with Paris green. We asked and secured, as many of you know, an appropriation of $50,000. We shall have expended at the end of the year about $30,000 of that appropriation. I do not think we shall require so large an appropriation another season. We have thoroughly investigated the outskirts, and find only one case where they have gone beyond the limits of our first investigation. The territory that is now covered is about twelve miles long and four miles wide. When we asked for the first appropriation of $25,000, we supposed the moth infested a territory only four miles long and half a mile wide. I think that in the course of four or five years, if the State will allow us to go on, we can entirely exterminate the gypsy moth. But it is a continual battle all the year through. There are four stages in which these creatures are found at different seasons of the year, and we have had to use different methods of destruction for them in each of these stages.

The CHAIRMAN. This gypsy moth is something that many of us do not know anything about. We do not know how it came to be here. Does it attack all kinds of trees, or only certain trees?