298 rLLINOIS STATE HORTICtJLTDKAL SOCIETY. 



their habits: "We were interested last Sunday afternoon in a flock of 

 cedar-birds, considerably over fifty in number, who appeared to be on a 

 frolic in the air, all seeming in motion at once. It seemed the movement 

 of a miniature army on parade, advancing, attacking, wheeling and 

 retreating as if in obedience to the word of command. In fact they were 

 engaged in serious business, feeding on the innumerable insects that filled 

 the air. Wilson speaks of their fly-catching as lazily done. We never 

 saw more expertness and alacrity shown on the wing than that displayed 

 by these birds. The air seemed full of them. One would rise aloft in 

 an almost perpendicular line to a considerable height, fluttering here and 

 there as if his only object were to display both sides of each feather on 

 him in the glittering sunlight, then a pause in mid-air followed by a 

 direct downward flight equally grotesque and rapid. At times the pale- 

 yellow markings of wings and tails showed white in the sunlight, and the 

 slender forms and sharp crests looked so unlike the same bird at rest as to 

 cause doubts of their identity. These birds generally feed on berries and 

 seeds, on which food they grow very corpulent. But at this season they 

 are and have been for some time on short allowance, and are very thin 

 and slim, very unlike in size and shape the same bird in autumn." 



Cuvier, the celebrated French naturalist, is said to have reached such 

 perfection in science that from a single bone of an unknown animal he 

 could ascertain the general class and species to which it belonged. Nay, 

 more, he sketched from that single starting point the entire skeleton, 

 which was found, on comparison with the afterward discovered and 

 restored anatomy of the animal, perfectly to agree with the same in all its 

 parts. Here is the true and for the present only basis of science as to 

 the feeding habits of birds. Their structure, especially that of the beak, 

 surely and perfectly indicates the general feeding habits of the bird to 

 which it belongs. These general habits often yield to special ones, which 

 are sometimes the result of inclination, but oftener of necessity. Per- 

 haps few seed-eating birds would refuse insect-food when their natural 

 food could not be obtained ; nor could insectiverous birds, as a rule, 

 refuse seeds if presented as the alternative of starvation. Then, as Prof. 

 Forbes quietly remarks, many fruit-loving birds feed their young wholly 

 on insects and their larvae until, full fledged, they leave the nest, and 

 with their new phase of life adopt for the first time their natural food. 

 Hence the necessity, which we all recognize, of carefully studying the 

 minutest details of their feeding habits from the earliest to the latest 

 period of their lives. 



With this study we are confident that the truth now partly recognized 

 will fully appear, that the so-called enemies of horticulture are largely so 

 •considered from a misunderstanding, or at least an imperfect understand- 

 ing of their true character and habits. When we view created things as 

 they really are, then, and then only, shall we begin to understand how 

 few things (if any) were made in vain. 



