NATURAL ENEMIES 



55 



feed upon the tent caterpillars. For example, Mr. C. E. Bailey 

 states:* " On May lo 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." 



Mr. E. H. Forbush gives* the following list of birds found 



Fig. II. — Yellow-billed Cuckoo (After Brehm) 



feeding on tent caterpillars in a Massachusetts orchard in 1895 : 

 Crow, Chickadee, Baltimore Oriole, Red-eyed Vireo, Yellow- 

 billed Cuckoo, Black-billed Cuckoo, Chipping Sparrow, Yel- 

 low Warbler. Other birds have also occasionally been reported 

 to feed upon these pests, but birds do not do so much toward 

 their destruction as they do toward the destruction of the can- 

 ker-worm, the latter being a much more edible insect. 



My observations upon the natural checks upon the tent cater- 



* Mass. Crop Report, July, 1895, P- ^9 



