i io Wild Bird Guests 



When we see shrikes attacking our favorite 

 chickadees and other little friends in winter, it is 

 hard for us to regard them as useful birds. Yet 

 Dr. Judd, who has closely studied their feeding 

 habits, tells us that in the main these habits are 

 good. It appears that one-fourth of their food 

 consists of mice, one-fourth of grasshoppers, 

 one-fourth of English sparrows and noxious 

 insects, and only one-fourth of small native birds, 

 useful beetles, and spiders. 



Quite different is the important service ren- 

 dered by a host of small birds whose duty it 

 seems to be to protect the trees and shrubs among 

 which they spend the greater part of their 

 lives. Here we have the vireos, warblers, wrens, 

 nut-hatches, titmice, and kinglets, all energetic 

 and persistent hunters of small game, which 

 if allowed to increase unchecked would quickly 

 destroy our forests and set at naught the best 

 work of the fruit grower. The vireos, many of 

 the warblers, some of the wrens, and the titmice, 

 work chiefly among the small twigs, the leaves, 

 and blossoms of the trees, and they are well- 

 hidden insects, insect eggs, or cocoons which 

 escape the sharp little eyes made on purpose to 

 spy them, and the sharper beaks so well fitted 

 for probing the crannies where they lurk. Who 

 can help admiring the work of a chickadee when 



