10 
rSEFl’L 1!1RI)S 
Without doubt one of our most useful l)irds and one of the few 
which will eat hairy caterpillars such as tent caterpillars and fall 
web worms, llenshaw ( U. S. Dept. A^r., Farmers’ Bulletin 513) 
reports that one stomach which was examined contained two 
hundred and hfty .Vmerican tent caterpillars ; another two hundred 
and seventeen fall web worms. 
The black-billed Cuckoo is perhaps more common in Alinnesota 
and more with than the above species. 
RED-EYED VIREO. 
(Plate 2 , Fig. 8.) 
Wdio has not heard and enjoyed the song of this bird emanating 
from shade trees along a village street on a hot day in summer? 
It is heard at a time when other l)irds are silent, and if one sees the 
songster amongst the leaves, he will be found to be actively search- 
ing for insects, even while giving voice to his song. The nest is 
pensile, in a fork, and characteristic in its structure, containing 
strips of vines, bark of trees, frequently pieces of paper. This nest 
may be thirty or forty feet above the ground. Eggs, three or four 
in number, white, the larger end sparingly s})otted. The bird is 
about six and a quarter inches long. Top of head, gray; white line 
over the eye, Avhich is red. The remainder of body olive colored, 
except under parts, which are white. AVe found this species to be 
the most abundant of its family in the Red River Valley some years 
ago. 0\’er 90 per cent of its food consists of insects. 
DOWNY WOODPECKER. 
( Plate 2, Fig. 9.) 
A true benefactor in that its food consists almost entirely of in- 
jurious insects, and it is with us both winter and summer. It is 
the smallest of our woodpeckers, being only six and four-fifths 
inches long. Black al)ove ; a scarlet band on back of neck; white on 
middle of back; under part, wdiite ; central featliers of tail, black; 
the outer ones white with black markings; wings, black spotted 
with white. Length, 6^4 inches. The female lacks the scarlet 
ixatch on back of neck. It nests in holes in trees. Often seen in 
winter in company with nuthatches, chickadees, and brown creep- 
ers. AAdiat little vegetable food it eats consists of seeds of poison 
ivy, sumac, etc. Seventeen AAdsconsin specimens had eaten forty 
insect larvae, twenty woodboring grubs, three caterpillars, seven 
