i6o 



The Bird 



surprising in its numbers and 

 extent. Every class of living 

 beings appears, at certain phases 

 of its existence, to check or come 

 into intimate contact with other 

 unrelated groups, radically affect- 

 ing the most isolated, in ways 

 too subtle for our observation. 

 A little green flycatcher snatch- 

 ing a tiny gnat from its hiding- 

 place beneath a leaf seems 

 a trivial incident, and yet 

 the effects of accumulated 

 events no more important than this are felt around the 

 world, so delicate is the balance of Nature. 



Fig. 122— Red-tailed Hawk 

 (the watcher) an active 

 hunter. 



Oddities of Birds' Diet 



To give any adequate idea of the vagaries of the diet 

 of birds would require a volume by itself, but certain changes 



in feeding habits, due to 

 some increased pressure in 

 the struggle for existence, 

 are too interesting to be 

 passed by unnoticed. They 

 show us how plastic and 

 adaptive birds as a whole 

 are,— how, often, instead 



Fig. 123.-Red Squirrel (the watched), of giving Up and becoming 



food of hawks and owls. , • < , • •n 



(R. H. Beebe, photographer.) CXtmct, a Certam raCC Will 



