BIRDS, CATERPILLARS, AND PLANT LICE. 



135 



trees, and took two of the tent caterpillars from a low branch. She 

 would hammer them on the ground for quite a time, then swallow them 

 whole. When she had swallowed the second one she saw me, and flew 

 away. 



May 19. — A pair of Redstarts were in the orchard most of the fore- 

 noon, and were apparently eating cankerworms most of the time. They 

 would take those that were spinning down by threads. In the afternoon 

 I saw one come to the 

 apple tree and remain 

 for about five min- 

 utes, and take eleven 

 brown-tail larvae. A 

 pair of Tanagers came 

 to the apple tree and 

 remained four min- 

 utes, and one took nine 

 and the other sixteen 

 brown-tail larvae. A 

 Black and White War- 

 bler came to the apple 

 tree and remained 

 about ten minutes, 

 and took twenty-eight 

 brown-tail larvae, that 

 I saw, from the leaves 

 and trunks . He prob- 

 ably took many more. 

 A pair of Yellow 

 Warblers came to the tree, and each took a few, but they were so 

 active I could keep them in sight but a moment at a time. 



May 20. — In the swamp off Broadway, Everett, the Warblers were 

 very plentiful in the morning, and were present in quite large numbers 

 until about 10 o'clock. Most of them were in the tops of the trees, and 

 it was a difficult thing to see what they were eating. The Yellow War- 

 blers, Yellow-throats, and Redstarts were feeding on the trunks of the 

 trees. There are very few limbs on the trees for a distance of fifteen 

 or twenty feet from the ground. The Warblers would cling to the 

 bark and pick the gipsy moth larvae from the crevices of the bark. 

 Their habits were different from those of a Creeper. Instead of cling- 

 ing to the bark with the body lengthwise of the trunk, and supported 

 by the tail, their bodies were crosswise of the trunk, and they depended 

 wholly on their feet to hold and balance them. They were hopping 

 round and round the trunks so that it was impossible to count the number 

 of larvae eaten by any one Warbler, or to keep him in sight any length 

 of time, on account of his swift movements. There were a great many 

 Crow Blackbirds that were nesting in the evergreens in Woodlawn Cem- 



Fig 



44. — Warblers feeding on younj 

 gipsy moth. 



caterpillars of the 



