COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 
35 
The common observation that cuckoos feed largely on caterpillars has been con¬ 
firmed by stomach examination. Furthermore, they appear to prefer the hairy and 
spiny species, which are supposed to be protected from the attacks of birds. The 
extent to which cuckoos eat hairy caterpillars is shown by the inner coatings of the 
stomachs, which frequently are so pierced by these hairs and spines that they are 
completely furred. 
For this treatise 110 stomachs of the yellow-billed cuckoo were available, all but 
one taken from April to October. That one, secured in Texas in January, was of a 
bird which had remained in the United States after its companions had moved on 
farther south; its food consisted of one large harvest fly or “locust” and two or three 
Bpiders, the latter very unusual food at this season. 
The contents of the other stomachs were practically all animal matter, only a small 
fraction of 1 per cent of vegetable rubbish being found in one stomach taken in Texas 
in August and one seed of sour gum in a stomach taken in Alabama in October. 
Over 92 per cent of the food consists of three orders of insects, viz, bugs (12.25 per 
cent), caterpillars (65.63 per cent), and grasshoppers (14.34 per cent). 
Bugs found in 37 stomachs were nearly all of the larger kinds, like cicadas, stink- 
bugs, squash bugs, and leaf-footed bugs. They constitute an important article of 
food from April to August, after which they disappear. July is the month of greatest 
consumption (29 per cent), and the average for the four months from April to July is 
more than a fifth of the whole food (21.98 per cent). Among the bugs were the period¬ 
ical cicadas and several forms injurious to oranges and melons and other cucurbit 
crops. 
Caterpillars were found in 91 stomachs and in 24 they were the sole contents. One 
of the most important of these is the cotton worm, found in 34 stomachs in numbers 
varying from 1 to 150 each. At least four held 100 each, and it is probable that the 
average number of these insects in the 34 stomachs was 50. It is hardly necessary to 
comment upon the economic importance of this work. Until the introduction of 
the cotton boll weevil, the cotton worm was the worst pest with which the southern 
planter had to contend. In the southern tier of cotton States a loss of a fourth of the 
crop was formerly expected, and if the yield was not reduced a half the planter con¬ 
sidered himself fortunate. Examination of many stomachs shows that this insect is 
a common article of daily food for the cuckoo, as well as for many other buds, and 
that these birds must exercise a very important restraint upon its increase. 
The apple-tree tent caterpillar was found in one stomach. Where apples are grown 
this insect is a pest, and it is fortunate that there is a bird ready and willing to restrain 
its ravages. Another caterpillar eaten by the cuckoo was the red-liumped apple 
caterpillar, an insect that feeds in colonies upon apple and other trees and often does 
considerable damage. In all, caterpillars constitute two-thirds of the total food of 
the yellow-billed cuckoo in the South. Few birds feed so exclusively upon any one 
order of insects. 
The natural food for cuckoos would seem to be bugs and caterpillars which feed upon 
leaves, as these birds live in the shade among the leaves of trees and bushes. Not so 
with grasshoppers, whose favorite haunts are on the ground in the blazing sunshine, 
yet these creatures are the second largest item in the cuckoo’s diet. Grasshoppers arc 
so agreeable an article of food that many a bird apparently forsakes its usual feeding 
grounds and takes to the earth for them. Thus it is with the cuckoos; they quit their 
cool, shady retreats in order to gratify their taste for these insects of the hot sunshine. 
But there are some members of the grasshopper order that live in the shade, as katydids, 
tree crickets, and ground crickets, and these are all used to vary the cuckoo’s bill of 
fare. Grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids as a whole constitute 14.34 per cent of the 
cuckoo’s diet. 
Beetles (3.16 per cent), eaten so extensively by so many birds, are of minor im¬ 
portance in the diet of the cuckoo. Only a trace of the predacious ground beetles 
