Economic Reasons for Protection loi 



tent-caterpillar. Weed and Dearborn point out 

 that they are unique in that they have a taste 

 for stink bugs, hairy caterpillars, and poisonous 

 spiny larvae which most other birds reject. 

 They are among the most persistent enemies of 

 the caterpillars of the brown-tail and gypsy 

 moths, and are said to kill many more than they 

 can eat. Professor Beal states that from the 

 stomachs of 121 cuckoos, were taken 2771 cater- 

 pillars, and Doctor Otto Lugger found several 

 hundred small ones in the stomach of a single 

 bird. A cuckoo shot in Washington some years 

 ago was found to have eaten 250 half-grown web- 

 worms, one large cerambycid beetle and its eggs, 

 one large plant bug, and a snail. 



Most woodpeckers are highly beneficial, spend- 

 ing their lives chiefly in the destruction of insects 

 which, if they were not kept in check would 

 quickly kill the trees which they infest. Some 

 species, like the ivory-billed and pileated wood- 

 peckers, spend most of their time in the deep 

 solitary woods; others like the hairy and downy, 

 divide their time between the woodland, the 

 shade trees, and the orchards; while one, the 

 flicker, lives much of his life in the open, and gets 

 a large part of his food on the ground. Wild 

 fruits and berries are eaten more or less by most 

 woodpeckers, but their principal food is insects. 



