BIRDS FEEDING ON THE MOTH. 227 



One chipping sparrow has been seen to take five females ; 

 six least flycatchers, thirty-one males and nine females ; two 

 wood pewees, twenty-two males and seven females. These 

 birds were most of the time at a considerable distance from 

 the point of observation, and it was only now and then when 

 they approached quite near that their actions could be dis- 

 tinctly seen. The phoebe appears to have taken male moths 

 only. The towhees took eighteen moths, male and female, 

 while on the ground. They then went into the trees, and 

 while there moved on and were lost to view. A male yellow 

 warbler appeared and was seen to eat a larva and a female 

 moth. The oriole came again, taking four larvse. Redstarts, 

 creeping warblers and chickadees come and go, feeding on 

 the moth, but it is impossible to follow them and also watch 

 the other birds. It is now eleven o'clock. The birds have 

 nearly all left the hot and barren land of the defoliated hill- 

 side, and are resting or feeding quietly in the shade among 

 the leaves, where they cannot be so readily watched. 



Let us now go to an infested orchard a mile away, where 

 not all the trees have been stripped by the caterpillars. Here 

 we find some species of birds represented that were seen in 

 the morning in the woods, but the catbird, the towhee, the 

 creepers, the redstart, the wood pewee and the crow are 

 absent. Yet we find here the robin, bluel)ird, yellow- 

 throated vireo, flicker and house wren, all of which feed 

 more or less upon the moth. As the afternoon advances, 

 seven black-billed and four yellow-billed cuckoos are seen 

 feeding on the larva? and pupt^e. There are yellow warblers, 

 chickadees, half a dozen orioles, several chipping sparrows 

 and other birds in the orchard. The few infested orchard 

 trees appear to l)e much better protected by birds than the 

 woodland, and the moth has not made so much progress 

 here. 



In the waning summer afternoon we return to the woods, 

 where, as the shadows lengthen, the birds again are busy. 

 The king birds and other flycatchers and the chickadees are 

 especially diligent. The king birds are now eating many 

 of the female moths. A solitary scarlet tanager hammers 

 a female moth upon a branch, shearing off its wings and 

 then eating its abdomen. In the advancing; shadows of the 



