62 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



there, over and back, for insect food. Like the woodpecker, 

 he sing.s at this work and his song is the embodiment of his 

 Hfe's purpose, being a monotonous but not unmusical / see, 

 I see, I see. And he does see every bark louse, canker worm, 

 bark beetle, curcuHo, click beetle, caterpillar, resting moth and 

 hidden egg. He reaches for the larvae that are spinning down 

 from the branches, darts like a flycatcher for flying insects that 

 have been startled from their hiding places by his approach, 

 and when the trunk has been cleared, he often descends to the 

 ground for cutworms. Hairy caterpillars are a favorite 

 morsel, and he really enjoys eating the dreaded gypsy and 

 browntail larvae. 



It may be well to digress for a moment to note the enormous 

 amount of food required daily by nestling birds and the con- 

 stant care and tedious labor imposed upon the parents to pro- 

 cure it. It is a fact established by observation and experiment 

 that growing birds will consume a daily ration of meat equal 

 to their own weight. The stomach must be kept full of food 

 during the day to insure the fledgings' health and comfort. 



A young robin that fell from the nest was brought up by 

 hand and fed on angleworms. The man who reared him found 

 him always hungry, and to satisfy his curiosity, resolved to 

 fill up that robin at once. The bird ate that day fourteen 

 measured feet of fat, juicy, wriggling worms, and the next day 

 was as hungry as ever. Charles Nash, author of "Birds of 

 Quebec and Ontario," fed 165 cutworms weighing together 

 five and one-half ounces, to a young robin weighing only three 

 ounces. A man weighing 150 pounds and eating at this rate 

 would require 275 pounds of beefsteak daily. 



Birds are in some respects the most highly specialized of the 

 animal kingdom. Their temperature is higher and their respira- 

 tion more rapid than in man. The young of many birds under 

 favorable conditions develop as rapidly as the insects on which 

 they feed. Two different broods of song sparrows were out 

 of the nests in eight days. In this incredible short space of 

 time they had developed from naked, blind, and helpless nest- 

 lings to full feathered, wide awake and active investigators of 

 the insect conditions in their immediate neighborhoods. Before 

 they left the nests, each bird was requiring one hundred cater- 

 pillars daily, and as the broods each numbered five, one thou- 



