MISCELLANEOUS INSECTS EATEN BY CUCKOOS. 13 
common tent caterpillar (Clisiocampa americana), which was recognized 
in 17 stomachs, and was almost certainly contained in many more, 
though the remains were too fragmentary for positive identification. 
When it is considered that this species can be obtained only during 
May and June and that only 50 stomachs were collected in these 
months, it will be seen that more than one-third of all the birds that 
could get these insects had eaten them. Though the remains in many 
stomachs could not be identified with certainty, there is no reasonable 
doubt that these caterpillars constitute at least half of all the food 
. during this period. 
Another caterpillar which appears very frequently in the cuckoo’s 
diet is the destructive fall web-worm (Hyphantria cunea). In one 
stomach 217 heads of this insect were counted, and the fragments of 
others indicated that 250 would be nearer the correct number. The 
larve of the white-marked tussock moth (Orgyia leucostigma) are also 
frequently eaten. One stomach contained remains of a number of 
army worms (Leucania unipuncta), but as these caterpillars feed upon 
grass, grain, and other plants that grow in the open, they do not nat- 
urally fall in the way of cuckoos. It is probable that army worms 
would be more extensively eaten if the fields infested with them were 
in the immediate vicinity of woods. Besides eating caterpillars of 
ordinary size, cuckoos often indulge in a meal of the larve of the larger 
moths and hawk moths. Of the latter, Protoparce carolina and Deilephila 
lineata were found in several stomachs. In fact, sphingid larvee appear 
to be favorites, and make up a large proportion of the hairless cater- 
pillars eaten. Giant silkworms were represented by one larva of Telea 
polyphemus, the Io moth (Hyperchiria io) by 13 larve, and royal moths 
by 1 of Hacles imperialis, each as large as a man’s finger. Only 3 
butterfly larve were identified, one the black spiny larva of Vanessa 
antiopa, another the well-known Limenitis disippus, the third the larva 
of askipper, Hudamus tityrus. While cuckoos eat many larve of Lepi- 
doptera, remains of the adult insects were found only once. In this 
case the stomach contained the heads of several small moths of the 
Arctiide, a family whose larve are hairy. 
MISCELLANEOUS INSECTS. 
A little more than 5 percent of the food is made up of miscellaneous 
insects, consisting of Diptera, Hymenoptera, and a few others. Tipu- 
lids, or crane flies, constitute the greater part of the Diptera; they are 
found in quite a number of stomachs, but do not amount to much in 
bulk. Among the Hymenoptera, the most interesting, as well as those 
most frequently found, are larve of sawflies (Tenthredinide). These so 
closely resemble caterpillars that entomologists call them ‘false cater- 
pillars’; and it seems probable that this resemblance explains why the 
cuckoo eats them. They do not, however, appear distasteful, for one 
bird had eaten over 60. Larve of our largest species of sawfly (Cimbex 
