128 USEFUL BIRDS. 



ated near the woods, in fact, there are woods on both sides, and no 

 houses near. The following birds were seen in the orchard during the 

 forenoon : Crow, Blue Jay, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow Warbler, 

 Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black and White W^arbler, Maryland Yellow- 

 throat, Bobolink, Indigo Bird, Hose-breasted Grosbeak, Goldfinch, 

 Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Kingbird, Brown Thrush, Catbird, 

 Robin, Baltimore Oriole, Scarlet Tanager, and Black-billed Cuckoo. 

 A Black-billed Cuckoo came to the orchard and ate twenty-seven canker- 

 worms in two minutes ; he remained over half an hour, and part of the 

 time was eating much faster than when I counted. A Grosbeak came 

 and ate both cankerworms and birch aphids. A pair of Song Sparrows 

 were carrying cankerworms to their young. A male Oriole came a long 

 distance to the orchard, for when he had got some cankerworms in his 

 bill he would start across the woods in a straight line, flying out of sight ; 

 he would come back in about half an hour. The Red-winged Black- 

 birds came to the orchard from a swamp nearly half a mile away, and 

 ate the cankerworms and carried them to their young. A Catbird 

 came occasionally and ate cankerworms, then would go and perch in 

 the alders beneath which his mate was sitting on her eggs, and sing 

 with all his might. I saw a Chimney Swift taking plant lice on the 

 wing. 



On July 9, 1898, Mr. Bailey made some interesting early 

 morning notes on birds feeding on the gipsy moth. These 

 are quoted below : 



I left Maiden for Medford at 3.30 A.M., and went to Forest Street, 

 Medford. I arrived there at 4 A.M., and there were some birds in the 

 place then. The first bird that I saw eating the gipsy caterpillars was 

 the Red-winged Blackbird. The Blackbirds came in almost at the same 

 time that I arrived, and they stayed until 6 o'clock, then left and did not 

 come back. I could not tell how many caterpillars were eaten by these 

 birds, but they took them very often, both the large and the small ones. 

 I saw them take no pupae. All the caterpillars were taken from the tops 

 of the trees. I did not see the birds come near the ground. There were 

 seven Baltimore Orioles, and they were eating caterpillars all the time 

 from 4.30 until 8 ; then they stopped eating, but did not go outside the 

 woods. As nearly as I could judge, the Orioles did not pick out small 

 caterpillars, but took as large ones as there were. I did not see them 

 take any pupae . The Black-billed and Yellow-billed Cuckoos were there 

 all the time that I was. They did not take the caterpillars as often as 

 did the other birds. Those that they did take were picked from the 

 trunk of the tree or from the ground ; they went very little to the tops 

 of the trees. Pupae were eaten by these birds. I could get within ten 

 feet of them very often. The Blackbirds and Orioles ate more cater- 

 pillars than the other birds. There was one Catbird in the woods ; it 



