SPECIES. 87 



CUCKOOS. 



One black-billed cuckoo {Coccyzits erythrojMhalmus) and 2 yellow- 

 billed cuckoos {CoGcyzus americanus^ fig. 30) were collected on the 

 Bryan farm in the latter half of May. They had eaten 1 spider, 1 

 click-beetle, 1 sap-beetle (Ettphoria inda)^ 2 rose-chafers (Macrodactylus 

 suhsj?inosiis), 10 loGustle'dt-mimngheetles (Odontota dorsalis), 20 beetles 

 of the firefly famil}^, 1 skipper butterfly {Eudamus)^ 20 caterpillars, of 

 which 18 were the repulsive, large, spiny, black larvae of the mourning- 

 cloak butterfly ( Vanessa aoitiojxf)^ 1 bugs, of which 1 was a green 

 soldier bug {Nezara hilar is) ^ and another Metapodms femoratits^ 10 

 May-flies, and 20 black insects related to the dobson and known as 

 Sialis infumata. Rose-chafers, which are very destructive insects, 

 are eaten by only a few birds. The skipper and cabbage butterflies 

 were the onl}^ butterflies eaten by Marshall Hall birds. The larvse of 



Fig. 30.— Yellow-billed cuckoo. 



the mourning-cloak butterfly are often selected by cuckoos, as are also 

 other hair}^ and spiny caterpillars that other birds avoid. Caterpillars, 

 largely in such forms, make half of the cuckoo's food, grasshoppers 

 and their allies about a third, and beetles, with small numbers of mis- 

 cellaneous insects, the remaining sixth. The cuckoo is not abundant 

 on the farm. It is undoubtedly the most useful of the exclusively 

 insectivorous birds found at Marshall Hall, because of the protection 

 it gives to the foliage of forest and orchard. 



KINGFISHERS. 



One pair of kingfishers was seen continually along the shore of 

 lots 1 and 2 (PL III, fig. 2), and another pair nested in the sandy 

 blufi' of the Hungerford farm. The food of the bird has already 



