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368 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
short neck, and with his long, tapering, needle-like tongue extracts his 
chosen morsel. The catbird, much as he is disliked for eating cherries 
and strawberries, is still more addicted to insect eating : and the king 
bird, charged with destroying bees, feeds on large flies, cankerworms and 
beetles. So disgusting a bird as the buzzard is very useful, and eyery- 
where protected by law; useful not only as a scavenger, but also, it is 
claimed, for the destruction of mice. 
The robin, coming so early in the spring, so familiar, so plump and 
tempting to the epicure, is often persecuted and destroyed by wanton 
sportsmen. He is perhaps the most useful of all our insectivorous birds, 
saving a valuable percentage of the farmer’s crops by his timely assistance, 
and requiring immense quantities of insect food to rear two or three 
broods of young each season. He is by no means omnivorous, never eating 
corn, living upon insects, preferring the hard-shelled species for his own 
use, and reserving worms and larve for the juveniles of his family. 
As aids to the fruit grower and gardener, for specific objects, birds 
sometimes have a peculiar adaptation. The flicker, or golden-winged 
woodpecker, has actually been seen to probe the gummy hiding places of 
the borer in the trunk and surface roots of the peach, and bring forth and 
destroy the pest. Such instances of special utility might be multiplied. 
While the farmer suspends his operations in winter, and comfortably 
occupies the chimney corner, his entomological assistant, the chickadee, 
reckless of the cold, prospects among the trees for insects in every crevice 
of the bark, and the creeper accompanying him further investigates the 
hidden habitation of worms. 
The co-operation of the birds with the farmer is, therefore, almost 
fininterrupted by heat or cold, climate or season. In the brief exhibit of 
the practical relations of birds with .man, the facts are so suggestive of 
evidence in the experience of all, and so germane, that further proof of 
their usefulness is manifestly useless. 
7 hg: Fo % 
