146 OUR SOUTHERN BIRDS 



checking of insect pests. The Cuckoo devours 

 great numbers of tent-caterpillars, a creature few 

 other birds will touch. If you will look close at 

 the great gray webs these insects spin to wrap 

 themselves, you will often find them punctured 

 again and again by this bird's beak. It has been 

 estimated that a single Cuckoo consumes from. 

 50 to 400 caterpillars daily. Anyone who has 

 seen the trees stripped by these insects will ap- 

 preciate the protection that Cuckoos afford to 

 green growth. They frequent open wood lands 

 or the borders of woods and sometimes come into 

 orchards and gardens, where they are more than 

 welcome. But they are never conspicuous around 

 our homes, because of their habits of concealing 

 themselves among the foliage, and of keeping 

 perfectly quiet when the least alarmed. 



Young Cuckoos are the funniest, ugliest little 

 creatures imaginable when first hatched. Their 

 black skin is almost naked, and their mouths 

 open bright red. The growing feathers remain 

 in pencil-like sheaths until fully developed, so 

 that their bodies appear to be encased in a curi- 

 ous mail of hedgehog-like quills. Young King- 

 fishers also present this singular appearance. 

 The constant feeding on hundreds of insects 

 daily has its effect; sooner or later the little 

 black bodies fill out, the day comes when the 

 feathers split their sheaths all at once, and 



