SHALL WE PAY OUR DEBT? 353 



the nesting season because the young birds thrive 

 better on these than on seed. 



In the higher bushes, catbirds are busy collect- 

 ing worms, lic£, moth and insect eggs, and eating 

 wild berries. Here, orioles work industriously, 

 taking moth eggs, worms, the softer bugs, and a 

 very little fruit. The cardinal grosbeak feeds on 

 seeds, berries, wild fruit; and when feeding young, 

 many worms and insects. His cousin, the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak, has the finest record of any bird 

 in the world as an exterminator of the potato bug 

 in its soft form, before it attains to its stiff beetle 

 wingshields. This alone should insure him a crown 

 in addition to the red badge on his breast. He 

 also eats other beetles and worms, a small amount 

 of fruit, and a few wild berries. 



In the orchards, the robins are as busy as in door- 

 yard or garden. The orchard oriole is a veritable 

 blessing, not in disguise, for all day long he works 

 faithfully collecting the click beetle that few other 

 birds will take, and destroying the tent caterpillars 

 by the thousands. The cuckoo is so active that one 

 pair will clean the tent caterpillars from a small 

 orchard, taking them whole when young, dressing 

 the spines off as the caterpillars grow older, and 

 sucking the insides of the largest, heaviest spined 

 ones. This is a trick not confined to birds alone. 

 I once saw a blue wasp fly to a caterpillar crossing 

 the steps on which I was sitting, and take a bite 

 in the side of the caterpillar. Then, flirting his 



