BIRDS 



25 



A pair of house wrens were observed to feed their nest of five young 

 five days old 230 insects, most of them large cabbage caterpillars ; 

 time, 4.24 A.M. to 7.38 P.M. 



A pair of orchard orioles, from 4.30 A.M. to 6.10 P.M., were observed 

 to feed the nest, containing two nearly full-fledged young, (J9 times, 

 probably several insects at a feeding. 



A pair of phoebes, from 4.20 A.M. to 7.12 P.M., fed two young 20(5 

 times. A young phoebe just out of the nest required as high as 200 

 good-sized grasshoppers per day. 1 



A young robin about three weeks old ate 70 large cutworms on one 

 day, and two and a half ounces of earthworms the next. A young scar- 

 let tanager ate 150 cabbage caterpillars, besides other food, in a day. 

 A cuckoo on 

 the tenth day 

 ate 42 grass- 

 hoppers, 00 

 woolly cater- 

 pillars, and 30 

 cabbage cat- 

 erpillars. On 

 the twentieth 

 day the same 

 bird consumed 

 (32 woolly cat- 

 erpillars, 123 

 cabbage cater- 

 pillars, and 43 

 grasshoppers, 



FIG. 9. Bobwhite chick three weeks old. Usual occupation 

 Photograph by the author 



amounting to three ounces of food. An adult cuckoo ate 225 cabbage 

 caterpillars, or 150 large woolly caterpillars, amounting to about five 

 ounces of food daily. (From feeding tests by Andrew J. Rednion.) 



From such actual data as these we learn that the estimates given 

 above are conservative. Much more accurate Observation is required, 

 however, before entirely reliable estimates can be made. 



Outdoor laboratory work. This should extend throughout 

 the year, and also to combine problems requiring continuous 



1 All the above data are taken from reports of students of the Indiana 

 University Summer School, Winona Lake, Indiana, for 1905 and 1906 

 (0. P. Bellinger in charge of class). 



