212 In Touch with Nature. 



ing at the meaning of certain suggestive move- 

 ments when the bird was near, I concluded it cap- 

 tured an insect at every twenty feet ; and so quickly 

 is it all done that a hundred trees might be 

 exhaustively searched in a day. No, not exhaust- 

 ively, for no sooner has one bird left than another 

 comes ; and none go away empty. Doubtless 

 every creeper visits at least fifty trees, and often 

 twice that many, in a day, and so from two to five 

 thousand insects is the amount of food consumed 

 by a bird no bigger than your thumb. Man reaps 

 the benefit of this destruction of insect-life, and 

 yet I once saw one of these tree-creeping warblers 

 on a girl's bonnet. Not a live one insect-hunting, 

 but a dead one stuck on for an ornament ! 



There is a spasmodic outburst of indignation at 

 long intervals, and bird-killing is condemned ; but 

 the millinery devils laugh and only lay up the 

 larger stock against the return of the demand for 

 feathers, which they know will come in due time. 

 I recently walked for ten miles on the sea-beach, 

 and saw less than ten gulls or terns. Twenty 

 years ago you could not have heard yourself 

 speak for the noise of these birds at the same time of 



