BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



those that eat the eggs or young of insects on tree-trunks 

 and branches, or chisel them from the wood. 



To the first group belong six species of owls and eight 

 species of hawks, eagles, crows, gulls, shrikes, and about 

 eight species of ducks. They feed on mice and other 

 small rodents, on smaller birds and poultry, and on sea- 

 food such as fish, clams, mussels, and scallops. 



The birds that live on vegetable food during the winter 

 are numerous. Throughout the spring and summer 

 months they may be useful destroyers of insects; but in 

 winter they are able to subsist on what the woods and 

 fields yield in the way of nuts, acorns, berries, and the 

 seeds of grasses and weeds. Such are jays, red-headed 

 woodpeckers, quail, grouse, and the following members 

 of the finch or sparrow family: cardinals, pine grosbeaks, 

 crossbills, goldfinches, snow buntings, juncos, tree spar- 

 rows, white-throated sparrows, redpolls, and pine siskins. 

 Many of these are permanent residents, but juncos, snow 

 buntings, tree sparrows, crossbills, pine grosbeaks, and a 

 few others leave their homes in the far North when deep 

 snows bury their food supply and resort to less severe 

 climates. Winter wrens are found in some localities. A 

 few robins, bluebirds, meadowlarks, and flickers, remain 

 North during open winters. 



The third group of winter birds consists of downy 

 and hairy woodpeckers, chickadees, tufted titmice, 

 brown creepers, nuthatches, and golden-crowned kinglets. 

 They glean insect-eggs from the bark of trees as a large 

 part of their winter food-supply and form an exceedingly 

 important group. The enormous number of insect-eggs 

 eaten by them every year is almost incalculable. Every 



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