358 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



large portion of the food consisted of canker-worms. The 

 birds each made a trip to the nest about once in twelve 

 minutes. The male and female came at nearly the same 

 time and went away together. They went in the direction 

 of an orchard infested by canker-worms. A few of the 

 larva? were dropped on the ground at the nest, and proved, 

 on examination, to be canker-worms. 



The crow was also observed feeding on the canker-worms. 



On May 22 the birds had nearly all stopped feeding in 

 the neighboring woods and were in the orchards feeding- on 

 canker-worms. 



Early in June, when the remaining canker-worms had 

 finished their transformations and retired to the ground, 

 several species of birds were again noticed feeding their 

 young on the tent and other hairy caterpillars. Of these, 

 three species (both cuckoos and the Baltimore oriole) 

 seemed to be the most useful. On May 17 a cuckoo was 

 seen to take eleven caterpillars out of one nest. Mr. Bailey 

 writes : — 



On May 10 a black-billed cuckoo came into a tree near me at 

 3 p.m. and sat there until 4.40 p.m., then he went straight to a 

 tent caterpillar's nest. He looked it over for a short time and 

 then commenced eating the caterpillars. He picked twenty-seven 

 caterpillars out of the nest before he stopped. The bird ate them 

 all and did not drop one. Then he went to the tree in which I 

 believe he remained during the night, for on Saturday, the 11th, 

 I found the bird in the same tree and in almost the same place 

 at 5 a.m. 



The orioles, chickadees and vireos often pecked the cater- 

 pillars to pieces and ate portions of them, seemingly feeding 

 to a considerable extent on the internal organs. This being 

 the case, it is quite evident that the stomach contents cannot 

 be depended upon entirely to determine the character of the 

 food of these birds, as no one is expert enough to identify 

 the internal organs of caterpillars with such certainty as to 

 determine the species to which they belong. 



The following is a list of the birds seen feeding on the 

 tent caterpillar : — 



