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TWETTTIETH CEISTTURY CLASSICS 



bird's life, is fashioned according to the nature of its work. 

 It has many different forms, depending upon the length 

 of the different feathers composing it, of which in most 

 birds there are twelve. When they are all of the same 

 length, it is even or square. When they shorten grad- 

 ually from the middle to the outside, rounded. When 

 the outer ones are longer than the middle ones, forked. 

 When the central pair is longest, pointed. 



The Downy Woodpecker braces himself against the tree, 

 using his tail with its sharp-pointed feathers as a prop. 

 Ever active, he peeps into every likely crevice and loose 

 piece of bark for a tender morsel. Useful as he is to the 

 farmer in removing injurious insects and their eggs, he is 

 too often under-valued and blamed for injuring the trees 

 and fruit with his chisel-like beak. On the contrary, it 

 is shown by the Department of Agriculture that of one 

 hundred and forty stomachs examined, only three con- 

 tained fruit, — apple in two, strawberries in one. Eleven 

 taken in our State in winter showed that ten per cent, of 

 his food was grasshopper eggs. 



The little brown Chimney Swift with its spine-tipped 

 tail can with ease rest on the inside of a chimney or hol- 

 low tree, where the tail again acts as a prop. 



The "Dipper," or Pied-billed Grebe, has scarcely a tail 

 at all ; so much of its time is spent in and about the 

 water that it does not need one. The wings, too, are 

 short, making the body compact and of the shape of a 

 double cone, admirably fitting it for diving. 



The long tail serves well to balance and guide the birds 

 on the twig and in the air. No matter how much the 

 branch may toss and swing, the tail moves now up, now 

 down, helping to keep the body erect. Whether or not it 

 further serves the songster as a baton or means of expres- 

 sion, it is very significantly jerked about, as everyone 

 has observed in the Catbird and Brown Thrasher. 



