The Birds’ Calendar 
in his ‘‘ Birds of New England,’’ where in the 
course of his remarks upon this point he says: 
‘‘The warblers capture the insects that prey 
on the foliage of the trees; the flycatchers 
seize these insects as they fly from the trees; 
the swallows capture those that have escaped 
all these ; the woodpeckers destroy them when 
in the larva state in the wood; the wrens, 
nuthatches, titmice, and creepers eat the eggs 
and young that live on and beneath the bark; 
but the thrushes subsist on those that destroy 
the vegetation on the surface of the earth: 
these seem designed by nature to rid the sur- 
face of the soil of noxious insects not often pur- 
sued by most other birds. They destroy near- 
ly all kinds of grubs, caterpillars, and worms 
that live upon the greensward and cultivated 
soil, and large quantities of crickets and grass- 
hoppers, before they have become perfect in- 
sects. The grubs of locusts, of harvest-flies, and 
of beetles which are turned up by the plough 
or the hoe, and their pupz when emerging 
from the soil; apple-worms, when they leave 
the fruit, and crawl about in quest of new shel- 
ter; and those subterranean caterpillars, the 
cut-worms that come out of the earth to take 
their food — all these and many others are 
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