56 CITIZEN BIRD 



orchards, his fields and forests, but if the birds did not 

 help him the insects that work by night and day — tap- 

 ping at the root, boring inside the bark, piercing the 

 very heart of the plant, chewing off the under side of 

 leaves, nipping off the buds — would make the earth 

 bare and brown instead of green and blooming. Yet 

 House People, both young and old, forget this. They 

 shoot and frighten away the birds, either because some 

 few of their feathered friends take grapes or other fruits 

 and berries by way of pay, or merely from thoughtless- 

 ness, to see how many they can hit." 



" Do all birds eat bugs and such things ? " asked Nat. 

 " Olive said she used to put out grain and crumbs in 

 winter for some kinds." 



" Some birds eat animal food and some seed food, 

 while others eat both ; but almost all birds feed their 

 babies upon insects. The nesting season is chiefly in 

 spring, when all plants begin or renew their growth. 

 Spring is also the season when the eggs of many insects 

 hatch out and when others come from the cocoons in 

 which they have slept all winter. 



" Then the farmer begins his annual war upon them, 

 and day after day he fights the Battle of the Bugs. 

 But if he stops to think, and remembers that Heart of 

 Nature has a use for everything, he will win tliis battle 

 against the creeping, crawling, squirming regiments 

 more easily. For above him in the trees of his forest, 

 in the hedgerows and bushes of his pasture and garden, 

 on the rafters of his barn, even in the chimney of his 

 house, live the birds, willing and eager to help him. 

 And all the wages they ask is permission to work 

 for a living and protection from tliose of his fellow- 



