224 



THE GYPSY MOTH. 



in search of food, are still crawling in search of it, either on 

 trees or upon the ground. IMasses or swarms of caterpil- 

 lars are clustered in every sheltered place ; thousands are 

 feeding on the leaves of trees near the borders of the deso- 

 lated area. The pupae hang in bunches under the limbs 

 and in the crevices of the larger trees. Many female moths 

 are just emerging from the chrysalides, and others are drying 

 their wings. This is the appearance presented by a wood- 

 land colony of the gypsy moth on a July morning. 



Seated here, somewhat screened by the remaining herbage 

 on the borders of the stripped tract, we may observe the 

 struo'Ofle for existence between the moth and other forms 

 of life. From the harsh semi-conversational notes heard, 

 first solemn and wary, then growing animated and cheerful, 

 we judge that a crow is feeding its fledged young in the 

 vicinity. Soon the crows are seen flying near. They alight 

 about forty yards away by the brook, and the old bird, go- 

 ing to a clump of bushes, feeds her young time after time 

 with something she takes from among the stems. ^Vith. 

 a glass we can see her take the larvae and pupae and put 

 them into the open beaks of her eager young. The old bird 

 now finds a female moth and passes it to one of the brood. 

 Soon becoming alarmed by some movement on our part, they 

 fly away to some pines, where in the high branches they 

 resume their feeding. An examination of the bushes they 

 have just left shows that the old crow has taken nearly all 

 the larvae, pupae and moths from the clump, leaving only a 

 few moult skins and spun threads to mark the recent ex- 

 istence of the moth there. 



' A family of chickadees now appear. Flitting about 

 among the trees, they begin to catch and eat the larvae. One 

 picks up a large caterpillar, places both feet upon it and eats 

 out the viscera, leaving the head and skin. Another pecks 

 a caterpillar into small pieces and apparently eats most of the 

 pieces. Number one now flies some ten yards with a large 

 larva which it has just seized. Alighting on a convenient 

 limb, the bird hammers its prey awhile and finally drops it, 

 mutilated and dying, to the ground. Another bird tears a 

 female moth in pieces, eating only the contents of the abdo- 

 men. All devote more or less time to killing the pup^, eat- 



