134 USEFUL BIRDS. 



MAY 17. A male Yellow Warbler came to the brown-tail moth tree 

 and began eating the larvae. He had eaten four when a flock of English 

 Sparrows flew into the tree and drove him out, one of them chasing him 

 across the boulevard. The remaining five Sparrows pecked a few times 

 at the larvae, then they flew to the street below. A Song Sparrow came 

 to the tree in the early morning and perched a while and sang, then he 

 went to the ground and foraged for about twenty minutes, searching in 

 the grass, then among the leaves. I saw him take two small green 

 grasshoppers. He then went to the tree and picked five brown-tail 

 larvae from the branch, then flew away. A pair of Wood Thrushes 

 came to the orchard and stayed thirteen minutes. They were chasing 

 each other through the trees most of the time, but I saw one of them 

 take several cankerworms from the leaves. Finally they were chased 

 out by a Kingbird that is nesting near by. A Yellow -throated Vireo 

 came to one of the apple trees that has a tent caterpillars 1 web on it, 

 took two of the caterpillars, and, after hammering them well on the 

 branch, swallowed them whole. He then went to another tree and 

 began eating cankerworms. 



The number of gipsy moth caterpillars increased from this 

 time on, as the eggs hidden away in cool and shady places 

 hatched out ; the number of birds seen feeding on them also 

 increased. 



MAY 18. Maiden. In the deer park, just back of Mr. Button's, I 

 found the gipsy moth larvae quite plentiful. A Black and White Warbler 

 came to the infested trees and hopped along on the trunk of a tree near 

 me, picking at the bark, and finally hopped to one of the branches with 

 larvae on the leaves, took eight gipsy larvae in a very short time, then 

 flew over the ledge out of sight. A pair of Golden-winged Warblers 

 were busy for a long time in the thick bushes. They came to the small 

 infested trees and picked the larvae from the leaves. Saw them take 

 twelve gipsy larvae, and they must have taken more. Yellow Warblers 

 were constantly passing through the trees. They would alight for a 

 moment and pick three or four gipsy larvae, then fly on. I should think 

 there were as many as twenty-five that passed through. A single Chest- 

 nut-sided Warbler came to the trees and stayed fourteen minutes, and 

 took twenty-two of the gipsy larvae that I saw, and many besides, I 

 presume. He also took some kind of green larvae from the leaves. He 

 would pick a few, and then sing. A pair of Oven-birds were apparently 

 building near. They were chasing each other through the trees every 

 few minutes, and would alight on the low bushes and pick the larvae 

 from the leaves. They would stay but a moment at a time. A Brown 

 Thrasher, after scratching in the leaves in the bushes out of sight for a 

 while, came out into the opening, hopped along under the small cherry 



