BIKDS FEEDING ON THE MOTH. 



225 



ing only a small portion of each. Thus with cheery chirp 

 and call they flit about through the woods, killing and eat- 

 ing as they go. A red-eyed vireo alights on a branch within 

 six feet of us, and, picking three half-grown larvse from the 

 leaves, swallows them head first and flies away towards the 

 brook. Something is scratching in the leaves a few yards 

 away. With the glass we can see four towhees scratching 

 and digging like chickens. They are searching for the pupge 

 which they greedily eat. If a male moth flies low overhead, 

 one of these birds will leap from the ground and capture it. 

 They search about upon the ground and among the small 

 shrubs and seize the newly emerged females, beating them 

 on the ground and finally swallowing them. A lone cuckoo 

 whose dismal notes we have just heard now comes down 

 from a near-by tree, alights on a small sapling and proceeds 

 to breakfast. It picks off fourteen caterpillars, one by one, 

 hammers the larger ones a little and then swallows them 

 whole. A family of brown thrushes is busy by the brook. 

 AVith the glass one of them can be plainly seen in the act 

 of taking pupae from the stem of one of the larger bushes. 

 A family of five black-and-white creeping warblers come in 

 sight. They run and climb about on the trunks and branches 

 of the stripped trees, picking up the smaller larvae of the 

 gypsy moth and other insects, and now and then darting into 

 the air after flying male moths or pecking at the females. 

 These females they rarely eat and sometimes do not mate- 

 rially injure, though they knock many of them off the trees. 

 One female which falls is snapped up by a towhee which 

 springs from the ground to take it in the air. A single 

 Baltimore oriole flies in, looks about as if out of its element, 

 catches several larvae and disappears in the direction of the 

 highway. The harsh cries of the blue jays have been ring- 

 ing for some time through the woods. One at a time, five 

 jays pass among the trees. With the glass we can see two 

 of them taking the large larvae from a tree trunk. They 

 fly with them to branches or to the ground, and eat them 

 there. You can plainly see the jays as they take the cater- 

 pillars in their bills, but they are so shy that they will not 

 remain long within our range of vision. Now the chicka- 

 dees are back again. One of them takes twelve pupae in 



