6 
same genus as the tent caterpillar, and possibly to that species. Other 
larvee were those of large moths, for which the bird seems to have a 
special fondness. The beetles were for the most part click beetles and 
weevils, with a few May beetles and some others. The sawflies were 
all found in two stomachs, one of which contained no less than 60 in 
the larval stage. 
Of the yellow-billed cuckoo, 21 stomachs (collected from May to 
October, inclusive) were examined. The contents consisted of 355 
caterpillars, 18 beetles, 23 grasshoppers, 31 sawilies, 14 bugs, 6 flies, 
and 12 spiders. As in the case of the black-billed cuckoo, most of the 
caterpillars belonged to hairy species and many of them were of large 
size. One stomach contained 12 American tent caterpillars; another 
217 fall webworms. The beetles were distributed among several 
families, but all more or Jess harmful to agriculture. In the same 
stomach which contained the tent caterpillars were two Colorado potato 
beetles; in another were three goldsmith beetles and remains of several 
other large beetles. Besides ordinary grasshoppers were several katy- 
dids and tree crickets. The sawflies were in the larval stage, in 
which they resemble caterpillars so closely that they are commonly 
called false caterpillars by entomologists, and perhaps this likeness 
may be the reason the cuckoos eat them so freely. The bugs consisted 
of stink bugs and cicadas or dog-day harvest flies, with the single excep- 
tion of one wheel bug, which was the only useful insect eaten, unless 
the spiders be counted as such. 
THE WOODPECKERS. 
Five or six species of woodpeckers are familiarly known throughout 
the eastern United States, and in the west are replaced by others of 
similar habits. Several species remain in the northern States through 
the entire year, while others are more or less migratory.° 
Farmers are prone to look upon woodpeckers with suspicion. When 
the birds are seen scrambling over fruit trees and pecking at the bark, 
and fresh holes are found in the tree, it is concluded that they are 
doing harm. Careful observers, however, have noticed that, excepting 
a single species, these birds rarely leave any important mark on a 
healthy tree, but that when a tree is affected by wood-boring larve 
the insects are accurately located, dislodged, and devoured. In case 
the holes from which the borers are taken are afterwards occupied 
and enlarged by colonies of ants, these ants in turn are drawn out and 
eaten, : 
Two of the best known woodpeckers, the hairy woodpecker (Dryo- 
bates villosus) (fig. 2) and the downy woodpecker (J). pubescens), inelud- 
ing their races, range over the greater part of the United States, and 
for the most part remain throughont the year in their usual haunts. 
They differ chiefly in size, for their colors are practically the same, and 
the males, like other woodpeckers, are distinguished by a scarlet patch 
ms 
