210 



Wild Birds 



times, depending much upon the locality and the season of the 

 year. While a few kinds of insects may be avoided because 

 of a repugnant taste, they capture, as a rule, whatever comes 

 in their way. The Robin commonly brings to its nest grass- 

 hoppers, crickets, katydids, and angleworms, because in its cus- 



Fig. 128. Female Kingbird balancing herself with raised wings while feeding young. 



tomary manner of search it finds and is able to secure these 

 forms in abundance. The Kingbird, which takes most of its 

 prey on the wing, discovers a far greater variety. When certain 

 species of insects are abundant, they are often eaten by many 

 birds who under ordinary conditions would never touch them. 

 Thus during a plague of Rocky Mountain locusts which visited 

 the Western States, these insects are reported to have been eaten 



