The Audubon Societies 207 



You may pick up a seed carelessly, and toss it away without thought of 

 what is packed so compactly and securely in its close-fitting coats; and yet 

 that tiny seed contains something more wonderful and more lasting than an 

 iron-clad warship, for it has the power to live and to grow and to leave other 

 seeds possessed of life-giving power when it shall have gone through its own 

 brief life-history. So, when you look at giant locomotives, at whirling spindles 

 and looms, at ocean steamships, at air-ships, or any of the creatures of man's 

 mechanism, remember that, powerful and remarkable as they are, they lack 

 this one greatest endowment — the germ of life. 



In May and June, the earth is full to overflowing with life. Everywhere we 

 can find Nature, the great Earth-mother, offering not only food, but homes for 

 shelter and cradles for offspring to the myriad creatures which abound through- 

 out fields, streams, forests, and mountains. 



We have already learned about some of the shelters and cradles of birds 

 (see Bird-Lore, Vol. XV, No. 4, p. 253), but without particular reference to the 

 law of life. Now we are to learn that only by means of this law can there be 

 any birds here or anywhere. People are slowly coming to understand that, in 

 spite of the great number of birds we seem to have, it takes only a short time 

 to destroy them completely, to lose them forever from this earth of ours, 

 through careless destruction during the mating- and nesting-season. 



The greatest lesson we may learn in this exercise is that of the value of life. 

 I cannot tell you what life is, — no one knows that, — but it is possible to learn 

 something of the value of life, and the wonder of life and the joy of living. 



These are the things to keep in mind as you go in search of flowers and birds 

 and insects, and when once you begin to realize how every single living organ- 

 ism has a part all its own to perform, how it is necessary for it to do this work 

 in Nature, then you will not need to be cautioned by your parents and teachers, 

 or compelled by laws, to protect living creatures, instead of destroying 

 them. 



In order that you may gain some idea of the enormous amount of life which 

 is around you and of which you are scarcely aware, I am going to ask you to 

 work out a few sums in arithmetic about the food of nestling and adult birds, 

 since this is the season of nesting with most of our migratory and permanent 

 birds. The table below is compiled from figures which patient observers have 

 tabulated, and represent many hours of careful watching and waiting, as you 

 will believe, should you once try to discover the amount eaten by a single 

 brood of young birds. 



Sums Taken from a Table of the Capacity of Nestling Birds 



1. If a single nestling Robin eats 60 earthworms in i day, how many worms would 

 6 nestlings eat in 10 days? 



2. A brood of Long-billed Marsh Wrens have been known to eat 30 locusts in i 

 hour. How many would they eat in a week, if they were fed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.? 



