422 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



A Rockville, Conn., correspondent of the Cultivator and Country 

 Gentleman 21 contributes the following on the Baltimore oriole as an 

 enemy of this pest : 



Speaking to a friend to-day regarding the remarkable absence of the tent- 

 caterpillar from our fruit trees this year, and speculating as to the cause of it, 

 he asked if I knew what an enemy they had in the Baltimore oriole. On my 

 replying in the negative, he related an incident in point which I thought might 

 interest your readers, as it did me : 



Being out in the apple orchard, he noticed a large caterpillar's nest at the 

 top of a tree, and, while thinking how it could be reached, an oriole flew into 

 the tree and, spying the nest, went to it at once, tore it open with his bill, and 

 proceeded to devour the occupants greedily. Soon, however, it flew away, but 

 returned speedily with its mate, when the two resumed the feast until appar- 

 ently not a single worm was left. The next day all that remained of the late 

 thriving colony or to indicate its ever having existed were the shreds and 

 tatters of the once populous canopy. 



George Donaldson, of Warren County, Ohio, in a letter (Oct. 18, 

 1885) to the Biological Survey, gives the cedar-bird great credit for 

 devouring tent-caterpillars. He states that "the cedar-birds ren- 

 dered great service by the destruction of the tent-caterpillar in our 

 apple orchard, which, after a great deal of labor, we could not free 

 from them until the birds came to our assistance." 



Speaking of another bird enemy, the yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccy- 

 Bus anienco/mis) , A. W. Butler says: 22 



Few birds are of so much service to the farmer. Especially are the fruit 

 growers and nurserymen its debtors. In early spring they love the orchard. 

 I have known them to destroy every tent-caterpillar (Clisiocampa americana) 

 in a badly infested orchard and tear up all the nests in a half day. While they 

 may have eaten some caterpillars, out of most of them the juices were squeezed 

 and the hairy skin dropped to the ground. 



Almost identical testimony is given by several observers quoted 

 by Forbush. 23 



The closely related forest tent-caterpillar {Malacosoma disstria) 

 is equally relished by the cuckoo and other birds. The fondness of 

 these birds for it and the results of their warfare on it are de- 

 scribed 24 by Mary B. Sherman from observations in Ogdensburg, 

 New York. She wrote on May 18, 1900, that— 



The town is full of birds, and they are doing good work feeding on the forest 

 tent-caterpillars. * * * The English sparrow has been eating the forest 

 tent-caterpillars, and last summer they attacked the cocoons and fed on the 

 moths. We have an unusual number of orioles, which I have seen feeding on 

 the caterpillars. I have also seen the yellow and several other warblers, the 

 yellow-billed cuckoo, the robin, the cedar-waxwing, and, I believe, the house 



31 Vol. XLIV, p. 407, 1879. 



22 Rep. Dept. Geology and Natural Resources of Indiana (1897), p. 824, 1898. 



23 Useful Birds, p. 266 [1907]. 



21 Bui. N. Y. State Museum, VII, p. 1019, 1901. 



