60 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO, 



and went away together. They went in the direction of an orchard infested by canker- 

 worms. A few of the iarvic were dropped on th^ ground at the nest and proved, on 

 examination, lo be canker-worms. 



The crow was also observed feeding on the canker-worms. 



On May 22 the birds had nearly all stopped feeding in the neighboring woods and 

 were in the orchards feeding on canker-worms. 



Early in June, when the remaining canker-worms had finished their transformations 

 and retired to the ground, several species of birds were again noticed feeding their young 

 on the tent and other hairy caterpillars. Of these, three species (both cuckoos and the 

 Baltimore oriole) seemed to be the most useful. On May 17, a cuckoo was seen to take 

 eleven caterpillars out of one nest. Mr. Bailey writes : " On May 10, a black-billed 

 cuckoo came into a tree near me at 3 p.m. and sat there until 4.40 p.m., then he went 

 straight to a tent caterpillars' nest. He looked it over for a short time and then com- 

 menced eating the caterpillars. He picked twenty-seven caterpillars out of the nest before 

 he stopped. The bird ate them all and did not drop one. Then he went to the tree, in 

 which, I believe, he remained daring the night, for on Saturday, the 11th, I found the 

 bird in the same tree, and in almost the same place, at 5 a.m." 



The orioles, chickadees and vireos often pecked the caterpillars to pieces and ate 

 portions of them, seemingly feeding to a considerable extent on the internal organs. This 

 being the case, it is quite evident that the stomach contents cannot be depended upon 

 entirely to determine the character of the food of these birds, as no one is expert enough 

 to identify the internal organs of caterpillars with such certainty as to determine the 

 species to which they belong. 



The following is a list of the birds seen feeding on the tent caterpillar : ^ 



Crow {Corvus Americanun), Chickadee (Parus atricapiVus), Oriole [Icturus galbida)^ 

 Red-eyed Vireo {Vireo olivacens). Yellow -hiWed Cuckoo (Coccyzus Ainericanvs), Black- 

 billed Cuckoo {Coccyzus erijthrophtliahnus), Chipping Sparrow [Sphella socialis), Yellow 

 Warbler (Dendroica mstiva). 



During the month of May an attempt was made to render the place as attractive to 

 birds as possible. The undergrowth, which previous to 1894 had been trimmed out, was 

 afterward allowed to grow, and in 1895 several low thickets had been thus formed. The 

 mulberry-trees were stimulated by judicious trimming, and bore a considerable crop of 

 early fruit which ripened in advance of the cherries, thus drawing the attention of the 

 fruit-eating birds away from the cherries, and serving to attract them to the vicinity of 

 the orchard. Ten nesting boxes were put up for the wrens and bluebirds ; but as the 

 bluebirds were very rare this season none came to the orchard. Two families of wrens, 

 however, were reared in the boxes in pkce of one family last year. Nesting materials — 

 strings, hair and straw — <vere hung in the trees and scattered about. Several marauding 

 cats were killed, and an attempt was made to keep nesc-hunting boys away from the 

 neighborhood as much as possible. Thirty-six nests of birds were discovered in the 

 neighborhood, as follows : Three red-eyed vireos, ten robins, four Baltimore orioles, 

 three cuckoos, five chipping sparrows, three least flycatchers, two redstarts, two yellow 

 warblers, two chickadees, two house wrens. 



Of these all but three were destroyed probably by boys, the nests being torn down 

 and the eggs missing. The three which escaped destruction were two wrens' nests which 

 had been built in boxes upon buildings, and a robin's nest in a maple tree within ten 

 feet of a chamber window. This wholesale destruftion of nests discouraged several pairs 

 of birds, and they disappeared from the neighborhood. Those remaining built new nests, 

 and after a second or third attempt a few succeeded in rearing young. One nest of 

 orioles escaped the general destruction, and the birds were busy for a long time carrying 

 canker-worms to their young. One of them was noticed to take eleven canker-worms 

 in its beak at one time, and fly with them to the nest. The vireos, warblers, chickadees, 

 cuckoos, orioles and chipping sparrows were particularly active in catching canker- ■vorms^ 

 and the English sparrow killed them in considerable numbers. 



