THE BIRDS AT DINNER. 



339 



dantly nourished. If we notice carefully the beaks of all the 

 birds we see, it will help us, by indicating their habits of feeding, 

 to locate them in their families and thus lead us to their correct 

 names. All the sparrows have short, stout beaks, well suited to 

 cracking open seeds and grain, which is their usual food. The 

 thrushes have a curved bill, convenient for holding worms and 

 digging in the soil ; they find most of their food on the gound, 

 poking among the dead leaves and rubbish for grubs, beetles, and 

 larvse. Our robins, which are true thrushes, do valuable spring 

 work in the garden and lawn pulling worms from the soil. Have 

 you ever watched a robin at work ? How he tugs and pulls 

 when the worm is long and does not come easily ! There is an 



GflLDEN WINGED WaRBLER. 



Rhby-throated Humming Bird 



( Trochilijs coliihvis). 



Eed-eted ViREo. Natural size. 



energy and a certain business air about him when at work which 

 is very interesting. 



The food of the thrushes is chiefly animal, although they like 

 a few strawberries and cherries for dessert, which we ought to be 

 very willing to allow them as a slight return for all the worms 

 and insects they destroy for us. The warblers are almost ex- 

 clusively insect-eating birds. A few of them hunt on the ground 

 for their food, but as a family their place is high in the tree tops, 

 searching among the foliage for the tiny insects, plant lice, and 

 spiders that make their homes there. They are small birds, hav- 

 ing slender beaks. 



The tiny humming birds, with their long, needle-shaped bills, 

 are well equipped for securing honey from the very heart of the 

 trumpet flowers and honeysuckles. They find numerous small 

 , insects within the flower as well as honey. From a paragraph in 

 a recent number of The Auk we might judge that spiders were a 

 favorite food with them, a writer there telling us that he found 



