MOST USEFUL BIRDS. 



213 



Neither species of the cuckoo is very numerous in the 

 infested region, but both are fairly common and both are 

 attracted by the gypsy moth to badly infested orchards or to 

 the edges of badly infested woodland. Five cuckoos have 

 been seen at a time in an infested tree. In some infested 

 places they may be found at times in considerable numbers, 

 and the number of larvae they destroy is astonishing. They 

 frequently take larvae from under the burlaps. 



Baltimore Oriole, — The oriole, like the cuckoo, is a well- 

 known destroyer of the tent caterpillar ( Glisiocampa A7neri- 

 cana) and other hairy larvae. Several observers have seen 

 this bird taking gypsy larvae from the burlaps. In 1894 in 

 an orchard in Winchester four orioles were seen to follow 

 along the rows of trees, flitting from burlap to burlap, and 

 taking the larvae from under the cloth. The birds would 

 hang to the burlap while turning up the edges and running 

 their bills beneath. The young orioles frequently enjoy a 

 gypsy moth diet, and the adult birds have been seen day 

 after day feeding their young with these insects. 



Only three orioles' stomachs have been dissected. One 

 contained four nearly full-grown gypsy moth larvae, another 

 two, and one was empty. These dissections probably did 

 not fairly indicate the value of these birds as caterpillar de- 

 stroyers, as the orioles have been seen to kill caterpillars of 

 which they ate only a small portion. 



Catbird, — Where the gypsy moth has penetrated into 

 thickets, the catbird feeds on 

 the larvae, and, as the season 

 advances, destroys many of 

 the pupae, taking both these 

 forms of the moth to its 

 young. That this habit is 

 quite constant is evident, as 

 the catbird was seen feeding 

 on the larvae in 1891, and 

 almost daily through a con- 

 siderable portion of the sum- 

 mer of 1895 by observers in several different towns. The 

 catbird has been seen to take larvae of all sizes to its young. 

 It is one of the birds that frequent badly infested localities. 



Fig. 30. Catbird. 



