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The Cornell Reading-Courses 



and leaves for the innumerable insects that feed there. In this group are 

 included the brightly colored, energetic little warblers, feeding on aphids 

 and young caterpillars; the somewhat larger and more slowly moving 

 vireos; the tanagers, orioles, cuckoos, wrens, and kinglets; and some 

 of the ground gleaners that habitually spend part of their time in the trees 

 The birds in this group are of small or medium size, with small, sharply 

 pointed bills for picking even the most minute insect eggs. They come 

 to us with the bursting of the leaves in spring, when they are most needed, 

 and leave again in the fall as the leaves begin to turn. It is needless to 

 say they are deserving of protection, for they are of inestimable value. 

 A third and smaller group includes the bark gleaners, birds that find 



their food by 

 prying about 

 the crevices in 

 the bark of the 

 trunk and 

 larger branches 

 of a tree, where 

 many insects 

 conceal their 

 eggs or crawl 

 away to hiber- 

 nate. Under 

 this head are 

 included the 

 two nuthatches 

 — the common 



white-breasted and the more migratory red-breasted species — the black 

 and white creeper (a warbler), the brown creeper and the chickadee. 

 All these birds are highly beneficial, and, with the exception of the black 

 and white creeper, are easily attracted to the house and garden by 

 pieces of suet, as was suggested for the woodpeckers. 



Fig. 32. — Chickadee, a leaf and bark gleaner , and a friend of the farmer 



Vegetable feeders 

 Of the vegetable feeders, the seed eaters form the largest class. Their 

 food includes also small fruits, buds, soft shoots, or even leaves, and one 

 species, the humming bird, derives a large part of its food from the nectar 

 of flowers. 



The seed eaters 



This group includes many of the ground gleaners such as sparrows, 

 blackbirds, larks, and crows, together with a few specialized forms such 



