WHITE-MAKKED TUSSOCK-MOTH. 17 



ration. But a moment's reflection will show the erroneousness of 

 this conclusion, of which the case now before us furnishes a suffi- 

 cient illustration. Here is an orchard, one-fourth part of which 

 has been devasted by these destructive caterpillars. The pre- 

 sumption is that their progeny, next year, will sweep the field. 

 It behooved the owner, therefore, to set to work in earnest to col- 

 lect and destroy this almost countless number of cocoons, and 

 from [any ordinary degree of search it may be reasonably feared 

 that many will escape detection. But if he, or any one whom he 

 may have it in his power to consult, knows enough of entomology 

 to understand that all this work has been done for him by his 

 parasitic friends, and much more thoroughly than he could do it, 

 he is at once relieved from all labor and anxiety. 



It was in the case of the larva of the Tussock-moth that I made 

 the interesting observation, last summer, of the manner in which 

 such birds as the American cuckoo contrive to eat the hairy cater- 

 pillars without filling their stomachs with indigestible material. 

 Whilst sitting in the porch of Mr. Jesse K. Fell's residence in 

 Normal, where I was visiting, with the ad interim horticultural 

 committee, my attention was attracted to a cuckoo regaling him- 

 self upon these caterpillars which were infesting, in considerable 

 numbers, a kind of imported larch which was growing near the 

 house. My curiosity was excited by seeing a little cloud of hair 

 floating down upon the air from the place where the bird was 

 standing. Upon approaching a little nearer I could see that he 

 seized the worm by one extremity, and drawing it gradually into 

 his mouth, shaved off, as he did so, with the sharp edges of his 

 bill, the hairy coating of the caterpillar and scattered it upon the 

 wind. It has been Ions known that the American cuckoo is one 

 of the very liew birds that will eat the hairy caterpillars, but I be- 

 lieve that it has not been before observed how it is that he per- 

 forms this useful part, without at the same time disturbing his 

 diijestion. 



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