BIRD GENEALOGY 



most part slender-billed, insect-eating birds, 

 that go south with the approach of cold 

 weather. One of these, as we have seen, is 

 enabled to spend the winter in the bleak dunes 

 of Ipswich by a change from an insectiverous 

 to a seed-eating habit. The yellow-rumped 

 or myrtle warbler thrives through the cold 

 winters chiefly on a diet of bayberries, while 

 all the other members of this family seek more 

 genial climes, where they may continue to 

 live on insects. Not only this, but a large 

 number of its own species go south, and win- 

 ter in the Greater Antilles, Mexico and Pan- 

 ama, where insect food is of course abundant. 

 The Ipswich birds eat not only bayberries, 

 but also the seeds of grass and weeds that 

 extend above the snow, and they glean the 

 bark of trees like titmice for larvae. 



Now birds like men are clannish; in fact, 

 there is a remarkable similarity between ani- 

 mal and human nature,— which is not so sur- 

 prising when one considers our origin and 

 relationships. Among savages slight differ- 

 ences, due to different environment, set apart 

 one group or race from another. Each race 

 considers itself the people, and despises, fights 

 and refuses to mix with the other. The Es- 



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