The Yellow-billed Cuckoo 221 



devoted to their investigation. Special care must be taken, hovv^ever, as the 

 Cuckoo is somewhat slow in making new acquaintances and sometimes 

 resents the too earnest endeavor of the observer and abandons its home. 

 The Cuckoo, or Cuckow of the Old World, is a singular contrast to its 

 relative of the New World. The former bird is a parasite in the sense that 

 it does not care for its own offspring, but entrusts them to the care of foster 

 parents, the female bird secretly depositing her eggs in the nests of smaller 

 birds. Our Cuckoo has better habits, inasmuch as it tries to care for its own 

 young; indeed, the parents are very courageous in their defense, but the 

 architecture of the Cuckoo is so very inferior that it is really remarkable 

 that many young reach maturity. The nests are often so frail that the eggs 

 can be seen through the bottom and are so small that they are strikingly out 

 of proportion to the size of the incubating bird. The Cuckoo has quite a 

 list of names, among them Rain Crow, Rain Dove, etc. It will be very 

 interesting and important data to collect a list of the names the Cuckoos of 

 North America bear. The writer would be glad to have all local names 

 sent to him; these will be published in Bird-Lore. 



While the life history of the Cuckoo is of great interest to the teacher 

 and student, and also to the lovers of the curious in nature, yet the relation 

 that this family of birds bears to agriculture is by far the most important. 

 The Cuckoo may be placed in the highest class of birds that do good to 

 man and in the class that has the fewest objectionable characteristics. The 

 Apple-tree Tent-caterpillar is one of the greatest and most destructive pests 

 that the farmer has to contend with. Unless vigilance and care is taken the 

 webs of this pest are soon in evidence. Even before the leaves open these 

 caterpillars appear and feed on the buds, but the greatest damage is done to 

 the fresh green foliage. Forth from its tent this destructive army marches 

 each day to feed. It is like an army of men in light marching order, that 

 carry few rations, but depend entirely on what they can secure by foraging. 

 As the human army devastates a region leaving ruin in its train, so do these 

 caterpillars leave ruin, and in many cases, death to the trees on which they 

 feed. The writer in his early years spent many hours in clearing apple trees 

 of this pest. Having a decided dislike to handling the repulsive crawlers, he 

 devised a simple but effective method of destroying both the caterpillar and 

 its tent home. A cheap gun, a pound of cheap powder, and a box of old- 

 fashioned G. D. percussion caps, did the work. A thimbleful of powder in 

 the gun, without a wad, held about 15 or 18 inches from the tent, was the 

 means used. The explosion blew the caterpillars to pieces and the tent was 

 burnt off the limb as clean as a prairie fire sweeps off dead grass. In those 

 days little was known of the food habits of birds; now their relation to 

 agriculture is very well defined and it has been found that the Cuckoo is 

 one of the birds that considers the Tent -caterpillar a dainty tidbit. The 

 food habits of the Cuckoo is a subject well worth the study of every 



