29 



It was evident that a 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 larvae 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 caterpillars' 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 caterpillars 

 to pieces and ate portions of them, seemingly feeding to a con- 

 siderable 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 cater- 

 pillars 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 : — 



Crow (Corvtisamericanus), chickadee (Parus atricajnllus) , oriole 

 {Icterus yalbula), red-eyed vireo (Vireo oUvaceus), yellow-billed 

 cuckoo {Coccyzus americanus) , black-billed cuckoo (Ooccyzus 

 erythrophtJialmus) ., chipping sparrow {Spizella socialis), yellow 

 warbler (Dendroica cestiva) . 



During the month of May an attempt was made to render the 

 place as attractive to birds as possible. The undergrowth, which 

 previous to 1894 had been trimmed out, was afterward allowed to 



