INSECT-EATING BIRDS. 



207 



other ; their jealousy of intruders and their solicitous care of 

 their eggs during the period of incubation ; their final joy 

 when the young break the shells and are born to the light, 

 and their untiring devo- 

 tion in obtaining choice 

 bits of insect -food for 

 the nourishment of their 

 offspring. Truly here 

 is Beauty at our door- 

 yard and Poetry has 

 taken up her abode in 

 our apple-tree. 



Purple martins and 



other members of the Fig. 27.— Eider-duck. Somateria molUssima. 



swallow-tribe, will readily occupy boxes put up for their use. 

 Wrens, too, are interesting friends, and are easily induced to 

 settle with us. "We knew of a case where a pair of bluebirds 

 found a happy home in an old beaver hat which had blown up 

 and lodged in an apple-tree. A good bird-house may be made 

 of a medium-sized flower- 

 pot, with the hole some- 

 what enlarged and the top 

 covered with a board. 

 Will not every one who 

 has a dozen rods of land 

 make a bird-house of 

 some kind, and thus help 

 restore the proper pro- 

 portions of the feathered 



and insect races ? ^^' ^S-— Hooded Merganser. Lophodytes cucuU 



TABULAR VIEW OF FOOD OF BIRDS. 



We must conclude, then, after careful examination of the 

 habits of birds and insects, that birds are of the greatest ser- 

 vice to man, and that they should be protected and encouraged 

 in every possible way. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that this 

 rule has some exceptions ; that there are some birds which are 

 far from beneficial, being on the contrary very injurious not 

 only to the interests of man but also to the well-disposed mem- 

 bers of their own race. In short, there are robbers and cut- 



