HOW TO STUDY A BIRD. 207 



The Study of a bird really becomes an investigation of its relation- 

 ships of environment. The most important of these relationships, from 

 an economic point of view, is the food of any species, a phase of study 

 ■which opens an almost limitless field for investigation. What a bird 

 eats is information of practical value to the rancher and horticulturist, — 

 not what a bird eats at some particular season, but what constitutes its 

 bill of fare for the entire period of its sojourn in the locality. Many of 

 the birds are invaluable assistants of the agriculturist. Frank M. Chap- 

 man mentions a cuckoo whose stomach at six o'clock in the morning 

 contained the remnants of forty-three tent caterpillars. It was found 

 that four chickadees had eaten 1,028 eggs of the cankerworm, and four 

 others had eaten t:00 eggs and 105 female moths of the same noxious in- 

 sect. 



Many ranchers regard the hawks as their enemies, because they are 

 reputed to catch up an occasional- young chicken. With the exceptions 

 of Cooper's hawk, the sharp-shinned hawk, and the goshawk, in this re- 

 gion, this belief is quite erroneous. It has been ascertained that 90 per 

 cent of the food of the so-called "chicken hawks" consists of injurious 

 rodents and vermin. A single owl in two hundred meals was known to 

 eat 450 destructive mice and similar vermin. The great horned owl is 

 perhaps the only exception among the nocturnal rapacious birds. In- 

 steaa of killing the hawks and owls indiscriminately, it would be wiser 

 for the rancher to raise a few additional chickens for the use of his 

 feathered allies. The horticulturist can easily afford to plant a few 

 extra trees to supply the fruit-eating propensities of some of the birds, 

 which live chiefly on insect food during the remainder of the year. When 

 any known bird is seen to capture an insect under circumstances such that 

 the prey can be recognized, or when the bird is observed eating vege- 

 table food, a note should be made of the fact, and as continued observa- 

 tions are made a fair estimate may be computed of the economic value of 

 the species. 



The manner of the bird's taking its food furnishes an interesting sub- 

 ject of study. The flycatchers capture their prey a-wing, flying outward 

 from some post of observation, snapping down upon a flying insect, and 

 returning to their perch. The chickadee gleans from the crevices of the 

 bark along the branches, finding insects and larvae that other birds have 

 overlooked. The robin uncovers the worms lurking near the surface of 

 the soil, or finds the destructive larvae burrowing in the roots of the grass- 

 tufts, or else boldly visits the garden and helps himself to the ripening 

 fruit. The osprey wheels above the lake or river, hovers in air when 

 he spies a likely victim below, dives flatwise into the water, and emerges 

 with his finny prey. The swallows flit in rapid evolutions, seemingly 

 on tireless wing, in quest of flying insects, and seldom taking their 

 prey in any other manner. The manner of feeding is quite characteristic, 

 hence it serves as an important aid in identification, besides offering the 

 student a subject for many valuable notes. 



The bird's relation to man, in the matter of companionship or asso- 

 ciation, suggests itself as worthy of consideration. The robin is known 

 to nest in the door-yard; the raven seeks some inaccessible cliff to rear 



