io8 Birds Every Child Should Know 



find them and readily adapt themselves to 

 whatever conditions they meet. How wonder- 

 fully that saucy little gamin, the English spar- 

 row, has adjusted himself to this new land! 



Members of the more aristocratic finch and 

 grosbeak branches of the family, however, who 

 wear brighter clothes, pay the penalty by de- 

 creasing numbers as our boasted civilisation 

 surrounds them. Gay feathers afford a shining 

 mark. Naturally grosbeaks prefer to live 

 among protective trees. They are delightful 

 singers, and so, indeed, are some of their plain 

 little sparrow cousins. 



All the members of the family have strong, 

 conical bills well suited to crush seeds, and 

 gizzards, like a chicken's, to grind them fine. 

 These little grist-mills within the birds' bodies 

 extract all the nourishment there is from the 

 seed. The sparrow tribe, you will notice, do 

 immense service by destroying the seeds of 

 weeds, which, but for them, would quickly 

 overrun the farmer's fields and choke his crops. 

 Because these hardy gleaners. can pick up a 

 living almost anywhere, they do not need to 

 make very long journeys every spring and au- 

 tumn. Their migrations are comparatively 

 short when undertaken at all. As a rule their 

 flight is laboured, slow, and rather heavy — just 

 the opposite from the wonderfully swift and 

 graceful flight of the swallows. 



