Destruction by Natural Enemies 37 



clearing in the woods when I heard two parent 

 song sparrows uttering frantic cries, and as I came 

 up I saw a large black snake make off and dis- 

 appear under a pile of brush. Close to the point 

 where I had first seen it, lay a fledgling song 

 sparrow, which the snake had just prepared 

 for swallowing. Its body seemed to have been 

 squeezed out until it was long and narrow and it 

 was wet with the slimy saliva with which some 

 snakes cover their prey before swallowing it. 



Large bullfrogs have been known to swallow 

 young birds, but I do not believe that they are 

 anywhere a serious menace to bird life. 



Pike and certain other large fish sometimes 

 capture waterfowl and at certain times and 

 places may be very destructive. Edward Howe 

 Forbush once saw a pied-billed grebe which was 

 watching a hawk, spring out of the water to 

 escape a pickerel which had tried to seize it by 

 the feet. 



One might think that with so many natural 

 enemies, and with the wholesale destruction of 

 bird life by the elements, there would soon be 

 no birds left. Yet it is a fact that all the storms 

 that sweep the earth and all the natural enemies, 

 including savage people, would seldom make any 

 lasting impression on the normal bird population, 

 if it were not for civilized man and his works. 



