Friends of Our Forests 



li\- I I('nr\- W. 1 Irnshdw 



At e\cry >tagf oi their ^ruulli, troiii the stcd \o ilic adult tree, our forest, 

 shade and orchard trees arc subject to tlic attacks of hordes of insect enemies, 

 which, if imchccked, would soon utterly destroy them. 



What the loss of our forest and shade trees would mean to us can better be 

 imagined than describe<l. Wood enters into so many products that it is diftlcult 

 to think of civilized man without it, while the fruits of our orchards also are of 

 the greatest imjjortance. Aside from the economic loss, which can hardly be 

 imagined, much less estimated, how barren the world would seem shorn of our 

 forests and beautiful shade trees ! 



Fortunately, the insect foes of trees are not without their (nvn persistent 

 enemies, and among them arc many species of birds whose equipment and habits 

 specially fit them to deal with insects and whose entire lives are spent in pursuit 

 of them. Many insects at one or another stage of their existence burrow deeply 

 into the bark or even into the living wood of trees, and so are quite safe from 

 ordinary bird enemies. Woodpeckers, however, being among the most highly 

 specialized of birds, are wonderfully equipped to dig into wood and to expose 

 and destroy these hidden foes. 



Certain insects that largely confine their attacks to the smaller branches and 

 terminal twigs are sought out and preyed upon by nuthatches, creepers, titmice, 

 and warblers. Others, and their number is legion, attack the blossoms and 

 foliage, and here the nimble and sharp-eyed warblers render supreme service, 

 the number of plant lice and lepidopteroiis larvre they destroy in a single day 

 almost challenging belief. 



Thus our woodland songsters are among the most important of all our 

 birds, and in their own field render man unequaled service. Moreover, very few 

 have any injurious habits, and the little harm they do, if any, weighs as nothing 

 in the balance when compared with the good. By reason of their numbers and 

 their activity in hunting insects, our warblers take first place as preservers of 

 the forest, and the following account, which treats of about half the total number, 

 is devoted to the more conspicuous, the more important, and the commoner species. 



THE WARBLER FAMILY 



Our wood warblers are assembled in a rather loosely defined family (the 

 mniotiltidae), embracing in all about 140 species, of which more than a third 

 are visitors to the United States. They are fairly well distributed over the 

 country at large, although more species make their summer homes in the eastern 

 half of the United States than in the western. 



A number of notable species, however, summer in the West, as they do 

 also in the Southern States. Our New World warblers are quite unlike their 

 Old W'orld relatives, the Sylviidse, or true warblers, whose family includes some 

 75 genera and between 500 and 600 species. 



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