OUR BIRD FRIENDS. 



CHAPTER I. 



AT BREAKFAST, DINNER, TEA, AND SUPPER, 



AVlmt the AVorlJ would be like without Birds — Their Uses in 

 keeping- down Insects — How Nature Provides for Birds — A 

 Bird's Kestaurant in Winter— Cheeky Charlie and No-Tail 

 Johnny — The Blue Tit and the Kestrel Hawk — .Selfishness of 

 Robin Redbreasts — The Industrious Starling — Town Birds' 

 Ignorance of Rural Things — Wise and Foolish Rooks — How 

 Privation Spoils Birds' Morals— How Sea-Gulls Feed — Birds 

 that Live upon Flies — Why Birds Put their Heads on One Side 

 — Birds that Catch Fish — Birds that Prey on other Birds — 

 Differences between Individual Birds of the same Species — AVhat 

 Owls Like— Skuas : the Robbers of the Air — Curious Accidents 

 to Birds in Catching their Prey. 



rpHE feeding habits of birds are extremely varied 

 J- and interesting, and I propose to say some- 

 thing in this chapter about the usefuhiess of those 

 habits to man as well as to the birds themselves. 



What would the world be like without the fowls of 

 the air ? A desolate and very possibly uninhabitable 

 wilderness; for we should have hardly a leaf upon 

 our trees, a flower in our fields, or a railway train 

 running at certain seasons of the 3'ear; and every 

 time we clapped our hands we should feel a distinct 



B 



