NESTLING BIRDS AND THEIR FOOD 



boys to patrol his corn lands when his grain is ripening 

 and until it is reaped and stored. 



The young of game birds are active from birth, 

 and follow the mother after the manner of domestic 

 chicks. The parent may have a flock of as many as 

 fifteen or even more, as in the case of the guinea-fowl, 

 partridge, and quail. The number of " white ants," 



The Looper Caterpillar is picked 

 oft the twigs by the parent 

 birds and fed to their 

 babies. 



The Bustard, the Partridge, and 

 other ground birds dig the 

 larvae of beetles out of the 

 ground and devour them. 



insects, their larvae, and eggs which are devoured by 

 so large a brood of hungry youngsters can easily be 

 imagined. The young of game birds grow at about 

 the same rate as the young of farmyard fowls. They 

 breed during the spring and summer seasons when 

 insect pests are at their zenith of destructiveness, and 

 yet, notwithstanding the incalculable services rendered, 

 we shoot them down for " sport " and the pot. I 

 have watched parent birds visiting their young with 

 insect food, and on an average small birds, such as 



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