CHAPTER IV 



WHERE TO FIND BIRDS 



THE plan of Nature seems to be that there 

 should be birds everywhere. They are 

 like a well-regulated police force, a suffi- 

 cient number of them on duty wherever needed, — 

 to guard every green thing from the attacks of the 

 many sorts of insects, to prevent self-assertive plants, 

 which we call weeds, from multiplying unduly, and, 

 in general, to help preserve the balance of Nature. 

 Hence, when things are normal, there should be no 

 tree or plant that grows without its bird guardians 

 of various sorts. Each species of bird knows its own 

 province, and confines itself pretty closely to that, 

 though some, like individuals of our race, will at 

 times go astray. 



Some of the birds, then, are at our very doors. 

 Ignoring the imported English sparrow, which has 

 spread all over most of North America and become 

 a real pest, the best-known door-yard bird is doubt- 

 less the robin. Few there are who cannot identify 

 that! Perhaps next to It in abundance comes the 

 chipping sparrow, the little slender, brownish bird 

 with unspotted light breast and a reddish patch on 



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