120 USEFUL BIRDS. 
moth (as cited on p. 17), may be-mentioned here in refu- 
tation of the assertions of European writers to the effect 
that hairy caterpillars are not eaten by birds. The fact that 
birds have been seen to feed more commonly on such cater- 
pillars in Massachusetts than elsewhere suggests the proba- 
bility that this habit of feeding is local and exceptional. 
But records of the destruction of the forest tent caterpillar 
by birds in New York and New England, as given by Miss 
Soule, Dr. Felt, and others, show that the species that attack 
hairy larve in Massachusetts are useful in this respect else- 
where. There are many other records in the literature of 
American economic entomology and ornithology which might 
be offered to corroborate the specific instances hereinafter 
given. This habit of birds has been observed more in Mas- 
sachusetts than elsewhere merely because the conditions here 
have been exceptional, and the birds have been carefully 
watched. 
It seems quite probable, from my experience, that those 
extremely hairy and destructive caterpillars, the Arctians, 
commonly represented by the yellow 
bear (Diacrisia virginica) and the 
woolly bear (Jsia isabella), are not 
i chosen as food by many birds. Still, 
Fig. 38.—The woolly bear I have never known either of these 
een le species to be very abundant, and 
think it not improbable that their comparative scarcity may 
be largely due to their being eaten when very small by birds. 
The earlier Thrushes 
take some of these 
laryee that winter 
upon the ground. 
Should these cater- Fig. 39.—The yellow bear caterpillar. This and 
pillars ever become the woolly bear are destructive hairy species, such 
as are eaten by Thrushes, Robins, and Bluebirds. 
very abundant at any 
time, it seems probable that other birds would attack them. 
The tussock moth caterpillars (Hemerocampa leucostigma) 
and others, which Dr. Packard instances as probably immune 
from the attacks of birds, are eaten by a goodly number ; 
and I have no doubt that the exemption of our trees in the 
