DIVERSITY OF HABITS AMONG BIRDS. 177 



destroyer, who is either dragged from his hole at 

 once, or speared by the barbed tongue of his 

 powerful enemy. Next come the creepers and 

 the nuthatches : they have nothing to do with 

 these tribes of insects just mentioned, which are 

 the peculiar game of the woodpecker : their food is 

 confined to the more exposed inhabitants of the 

 bark ; the crevices of which they examine with the 

 same assiduity, and traverse in the same tortuous 

 course, as do the woodpeckers : the one taking 

 what the other leaves. It is remarkable, that in 

 temperate regions, like Europe, few insects are 

 found on the horizontal branches of trees ; and this 

 seems the true reason why we have no scansorial 

 birds which frequent such situations : but in tropical 

 countries the case is different; and we there find 

 the whole family of cuckows exploring such branches, 

 and such only. Finally, the extreme ramifications, 

 never visited by any of the foregoing birds, are 

 assigned, — in this country at least, — to the different 

 species of titmice, whose diminutive size and facility 

 of clinging are so well suited for such situations. In 

 this manner are the insect inhabitants of the trunk, 

 the bark, and the branches, kept within due limits ; 

 while those which frequent the leaves become the 

 prey of other birds. The caterpillar-catchers of 

 Africa, India, and New Holland, as the name 

 implies, feed only upon the larger sized larvae ; while, 

 in this country, the whole family of warblers make 

 continued havoc among all those lesser insects 

 which live among foliage. Wherever, from climate 

 or local situation, insects are most abundant, there 

 also are the agents for subduing them proportionably 



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