184 USEFUL BIRDS. 



dissected by Professor Aughey during a locust irruption had 

 eaten one hundred and fifty-two locusts. When injurious 

 caterpillars are numerous, the C^atbird attacks them. Its 

 name appears in the list of birds which feed on brown-tail 

 and gips}^ caterpillars, cankerworms, forest caterpillars, and 

 tent caterpillars. It also feeds its young on the hairy cater- 

 pillars of the gipsy moth and the brown-tail moth, and on 

 many of the imagoes as well as those of native noctuids. 

 I have frequently observed this habit. A Catbird used to 

 come to my window early in the morning to get the cut- 

 worm moths that had flown against the screen in the night. 

 Mr. F. H. Mosher watched two pairs of Catbirds and their 

 young in 1895, and found that the young were fed very 

 largely on gipsy caterpillars. He says : — 



The Catbird when feeding is most busy in tlie morning until about 

 8.40. From that time she comes occasionally vintil from 3 to 4 o'clock, 

 when she is more active again. In the morning she Avould come and 

 eat two or tliree herself, and then carry one to her young. She would 

 be absent about five minutes. After she had made two or three trijjs 

 she would not stop to eat any herself. lu the afternoon, during her 

 period of greatest activity, she would make trii)s about every ten minutes. 

 She seemed to prefer larvfe to jjupa^, l)ut Avhen hard pressed would take 

 pupa3. The size of the larv;\! seemed to make no difference to her, as 

 she took the full-grown just as readily as tlie small. 



Mr. Mosher thought in 1895 that the Catbird was, next to 

 the Cuckoos and Orioles, the most important enem\' of the 

 gipsy moth. These three species alone would be enough, 

 if in sufiicient numbers, to check this insect in the localities 

 which they frequent. The Catbird forages mainly on the 

 ground and in shrubbery, but seldom in trees. The Cuckoos 

 feed mainly among the lower branches, while the Orioles go 

 up even to the topmost twigs. 



From the evidence at hand we must conclude that, though 

 the Catbird is sometimes a nuisance to the fruit grower, it 

 must be tolerated and even encouraged for the good it does. 

 The problem before us is not how to destroy. the birds, but 

 how to keep both birds and fruit. 



