The Food of Birds 



149 



rows; warblers and vireos scan every twig and leaf; 

 flycatchers, like the cat family, lie in watch and spring 

 after their prey, only in the air instead of on the ground, 

 feeding more particularly on low-flying insects; while 

 swifts, swallows, and martins glean their harvest from the 

 diurnal hosts of high-flying winged creatures. Many 



Fig. 115.— Crab. 



times when we think hummingbirds are taking dainty 

 sips of nectar from the flowers, they are in reality pick- 

 ing minute spiders and flies from the deep cups of the co- 

 rollas. When night falls, the insects which have chosen 

 that time as the safer to carry on their business of life 

 are pounced upon by nocturnal feathered beings — the 

 cavernous mouths of the whippoorwills engulf them as 

 they rise from their hiding-places, and the bristles of 



