THE MUSEUM. 



29 



"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 commenced 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 remain- 

 ed during the night, for on Saturday, 

 the I ith, 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 stom- 

 ach contents cannot be depended up- 

 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 cer- 

 tainty as to determine the species to 

 which they belong. 



The following is a list of the birds 

 seen feeding on the tent caterpilla 



Crow {Corviis anicricanus), chicka- 

 dee (yPants atricapillus), oriole {Icter- 

 us galbuld), red-eyed vireo (J'ireo 

 olivaceus), yellow-billed cuckoo {Coc- 

 cyzus anicricanus), black-billed cuckoo 

 {Coccy^us c ryt hrop Ii t ha I ni n s) , chipping 

 sparrow {Spizclla socialis), yellow 

 warbler {Dendroica cestiva). 



During the month of May an at- 

 tempt was made to render the place 

 as attractive to birds as possible. The 

 undergrowth, which previous to 1 894 

 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 con- 

 siderable 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 vic- 

 inity 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, how- 

 ever, were reared in the boxes in place 

 of one family last year. Nesting mat- 

 erials — strings, hair and straw — were 

 hung in the trees and scattered about. 

 Several marauding cats were killed, 

 and an attempt was made to keep 

 nest-hunting boys away from the 

 neighborhood as much as possible. 

 Thirty-six nests of birds were dis- 

 covered in the neighborhood, as fol- 

 lows: 



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 destroy- 

 ed probably by boys, the nests being 

 torn down and the eggs missing. The 

 three which escaped destruction were 

 two wren's 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 

 destruction of nests discouraged sever- 

 al pairs of birds, and they disappeared 

 from the neighborhood. Those re- 

 maining built new nests, and after a 

 second or third attempt a few suc- 

 ceeded in rearing young. One nest of 

 orioles escaped the general destruction, 

 and the birds were busy for a long 



