54 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



on whose insect-ridden premises the warblers, 

 phoebe birds, vireos, thrushes or catbirds make their 

 nests and rear their hungry broods. 



It is well that the experts of the Department of 

 Agriculture have put before us names and figures 

 to reveal the work of the insectivorous birds. The 

 birds do their entomological work so quietly and 

 unostentatiously that until the records were given 

 us, we had no adequate conception of the extent or 

 the value of the work annually accomplished for us 

 by our feathered friends. The average farmer 

 notices most particularly the birds that damage his 

 cherries and grapes. The average friend of the 

 birds notices particularly those whose songs appeal 

 to him, and it is only the confirmed bird-lover who 

 is willing to make the observations that count. 



I heartily wish that every forester in America 

 could have seen what I saw no longer ago than last 

 September in the Berkshire Hills when the song- 

 birds were beginning to move southward. By acci- 

 dent of position, I saw a flock of perhaps twenty- 

 five warblers go through the top of a large oak tree, 

 starting on one side and working through to the 

 other. Those little gray sprites literally combed 

 the foliage of that tree-top for insects, almost leaf 

 by leaf. It was done so quietly that only a watchful 

 eye would have noticed it. Many other times, how- 

 ever, I have watched warblers hunting through 

 foliage with a thoroughness that is highly gratify- 

 ing to a hater of noxious insects. 



