84 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A KUBV-TIIROATED HUMMINGBIRD 



Hunimingljirds are provided with long, needlelike bills and hollow 

 tongues tor sucking the nectar from flowers. Some species have 

 variously curved bills fitted to the corollas of particular flowers. 



those insects which hide in the grass or among the leaves 

 of shrubs and trees, and these must be searched out with 

 keen eyes. And so, among birds, we have probers in the 

 snipe, scratchers in the grouse and quail, borers in the 

 woodpeckers, flycatchers in the swallows and nighthawks, 

 and gleaners in the blackbirds, thrushes, vireos and 

 warblers. In each group we find those modifications of 

 bill, feet, wings, tail, tongue and eyes which best fit the 

 bird for securing the insects in its particular way. 



Among the vegetable feeders the largest number live 

 upon seeds and are of rather generalized structure ex- 

 cept for their bills which are heavy and conical like those 

 of the well-known sparrow and carried to the extreme in 

 the grosbeaks. There are a few birds like our humming- 

 birds, the tropical honey creepers and the African sun 

 birds which take a large i)art of their sustenance from the 



nectar of flowers. These birds have slender probe-like 

 bills and tubular tongues modified so as to be best fitted 

 for sucking the nectar from the various-shaped corollas. 

 Among the five hundred odd species of hummingbirds, 

 we find almost every conceivable variation in the form 

 of the bill, from those like Docimastes, with probes nearly 

 three inches long for sucking the nectar from large tubu- 

 lar flowers, to those of the tiny Rhamphomicron, with a 

 bill scarcelv half an inch in length, so short that the hum- 

 mer alights on the base of the flower and pierces the 

 nectary in an unlawful way. A few have curved bills, 

 one almost sickle-shaped, and others slightly upturned 

 bills, and all are modified for feeding on particular 

 flowers. 



Finally, there are birds which feed almost entirely 

 upon fruits and a few, the sapsuckers, which derive most 



A YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER 



This misbehaving member of the bird family is at his "sugar-bush." 

 Sapsuckers are degenerate woodpeckers, and, like other degenerates, 

 they sometimes become into.Kicated by drinking fermented sap. 



A liol ^l. U Kl,.\ 



This is one of the birds that finds its food by gleaning about the 

 leaves antl branches. Its finely pointed bill is a perfect forcep for 

 picking off the squirming caterpillar or the smallest insect egg. 



of their nourishment from the sap of trees. This they 

 secure by drilling series of small holes through the bark 

 and establishing regular "sugar bushes," visiting the dif- 

 ferent trees as often as the sap collects. Occasionally, 

 in the heat of the sun, the sap ferments and the unso- 

 phisticated sapsuckers are treated to a beverage which 

 rapidly causes them to act in a questionable manner. In 

 fact, they have been known to become so confused as to 

 mistake a man's leg for the limb of a tree. The sap- 

 suckers are degenerate woodpeckers, and although they 

 retain the characteristic bill, feet and stiff tails, their 

 tongues, instead of being greatly protrusible, spearlike 

 and armed with barbs as in the true woodpeckers, have 

 lieconie split and brushlike for better gathering the sap. 

 W ere we to consider fully the food of all species, we 

 would discover that there is scarcelv an animal or vege- 

 table substance that does not furnish the food of some 

 groui) of birds. Between the loons and grebes that find 

 their food at the Ijottom of the lakes, and the swallows 

 that dart above the trees, there are birds probing in the 

 soil, scratching its surface, turning over the fallen leaves, 

 gleaning through the grass and herbage, searching the 



