WHAT HE EATS 49 
They want more than three meals too. They 
need to eat very often. One catbird will take 
thirty grasshoppers for his breakfast, and in a 
few hours he will want thirty more. So he de- 
stroys a great many in a day. 
Birds begin eating long before we are out of 
bed, and keep it up till night comes again, or as 
long as they can see. 
You must not think the birds are greedy, as 
a person would be if he ate every few minutes 
all day. They are made to do so. It 1s their 
business to, destroy insects, small animals, and 
weeds that trouble us so much, and the more 
they eat the better for us. 
Let us see where they go for food. Each 
bird has his own place to work. 
The catbird watches the fruit-trees, and all 
day long eats insects that are spoiling our fruit 
or killing the trees. When the cherries are 
ripe, we should not forget that he has saved the 
fruit from insects, and has well earned a share 
for himself. 
If you spent days and weeks picking off in- 
sects, would you not think you had earned part 
of the fruit? ‘ For every cherry he eats” (says 
a man who has watched him), “he has eaten at 
least one thousand insects.” 
The robin eats great numbers of canker- 
