If birds are protected and encouraged to nest about the farm and garden, they will do their share in destroying noxious insects and weeds, and a few hours spent in putting up boxes for bluebirds, martins, and wrens will prove a good investment. Birds are protected by law in many States, but it remains for the agriculturalists to see that the laws are faithfully observed.
[THE CUCKOOS.]
(Coccyzus americanus and C. erythophthalmus)
Two species of cuckoos, the yellow-billed ([fig. 1]) and the black-billed, are common in the United States east of the Plains, and a subspecies of the yellow-billed extends westward to the Pacific. While the two species are quite distinct, they do not differ greatly in food habits, and their economic status is practically the same.
Fig. 1.—Yellow-billed cuckoo.
An examination of 155 stomachs has shown that these cuckoos are much given to eating caterpillars, and, unlike most birds, do not reject those covered with hair. In fact, cuckoos eat so many hairy caterpillars that the hairs pierce the inner lining of the stomach and remain there, so that when the stomach is opened and turned inside out, it appears to be lined with a thin coating of fur.