BIRD ENEMIES OF FOREST INSECTS 



685 



up to 1906 the birds have kept the forest tent-caterpillar: "The town is 

 numbers of the moths below the point full of birds, and they are doing good 

 where they can do appreciable injury." work. * * * The English sparrow has 



How birds are able to accomplish been eating the forest tent-caterpillars, 

 such resiilts may be better understood and last summer they attacked the 

 by considering the following observa- cocoons and fed on the moths. We 

 tions of Messrs. Mosher and Kirkland, have an unusual number of orioles 

 also reported by Mr. 

 Forbush : A yellow 

 warbler ate fifteen 

 caterpillars of the 

 gypsy moth in less 

 than five minutes ; 

 a scarlet tanager ate 

 upwards of thirty 

 caterpillars within 5 

 minutes ; two scarlet 

 tanagers together ate 

 small caterpillars at 

 the rate of thirty-five 

 a minute for 18 min- 

 utes ; a crow blackbird 

 ate forty caterpillars 

 in a little over 3 

 minutes ; a red-eyed 

 vireo ate seventy-three 

 in 40 minutes; a yel- 

 low-billed cuckoo ate 

 eighty-one in 48 min- 

 utes. Before such en- 

 thusiastic appetites, 

 the nimibers of the 

 most abundant insect 

 pest must surely melt 

 away. 



Similar records for 

 the forest tent-cater- 

 pillar are the follow- 

 ing : A black-billedcuc- 

 koo was seen to eat 

 thirty-six within 5 

 minutes; red-eyed 

 vireos (probably a 

 pair) took ninety-two 

 forest tent-caterpillars 

 from a tree within an 

 hour; a male Balti- 

 more oriole went into 

 a tree infested by 

 these caterpillars, 

 where he stayed 4 minutes, killing eight- 

 teen caterpillars in that time, coming 

 a little later he stayed 7 minutes and 

 took twenty-six caterpillars. 



At Ogdensberg, New York, Mary B. 

 Sherman made the following observa- 

 tions on the warfare of birds against the 



The H.mry Woodpecker 



this bird with its long sharp bill for digging insects, eggs and larvae 

 from beneath the bark of trees feeds largely on wood boring 

 larvae. bark beetles and gypsy moths are .\lso destroyed by it 



which I have seen feeding on the cater- 

 pillars. I have also seen the yellow and 

 several other warblers, the yellow- 

 billed cuckoo, the robin, the cedar 

 waxwing, and I believe, the house wren 

 feeding on the caterpillars. The maples 

 in front of the house have been filled 



