6 
same genus as the tent caterpillar, while others contained that species, 
Other larve were those of large moths, for which the bird seems to 
have a special fondness. The beetles were mainly click beetles and 
weevils, with a few May beetles. The sawflies were all found in two 
stomachs, one of which contained no less than 100 in the larval 
Stage. 
Of the yellow-billed cuckoo, 109 stomachs (collected from May to 
October, inclusive) were examined. The contents consisted of 1,865 
caterpillars, 93 beetles, 242 grasshoppers, 37 sawflies, 69 bugs, 6 flies, 
and 86 spiders. Most of the caterpillars belonged to hairy species and 
many of them were of large size. One stomach contained 250 Ameri- 
can tent caterpillars; another 217 fall webworms. In places where tent 
caterpillars are abundant they seem to constitute a large portion of the 
food of these two birds. The beetles were distributed among several 
families, but all more or less 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 grasshoppers were several katydids and 
tree crickets. The sawflies were in the larval stage, in which they 
resemble caterpillars so closely that they are commonly called false 
caterpillars, 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 exception 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 wookpeckers 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 4 
healthy tree, but that when a tree is affected by wood-boring larv® 
the insects are accurately located, dislodged, and devoured. In case 
the holes from which the borers are taken are afterwards occupied by 
colonies of ants, these ants in turn are drawn out and eaten. 
Two of the best known woodpeckers, the hairy woodpecker (Dry 
bates villosus) (fig. 2) and the downy woodpecker (D. pubescens), includ- 
ing their races, range uver the greater part of the United States, and 
for the most part remain throughout 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 ly a scarlet patch 
on the head. 
