COMMON INSECTS AND BIRDS \v.\ 



of the diseases scattered abroad by cats, and which catch fewer 

 birds and pouhry and more rats and mice than cats, are extreme- 

 ly vahiable and we are forced to depend upon them to rid our 

 fields and homes of many of the most destructive pests in the 

 world. 



The woodpeckers are excellent birds also. They eat in- 

 sects and insect larvae. They peck holes in the bark of trees to 

 get grubs and borers out of it. There are the downy, the hairy 

 and the red-headed woodpeckers and the yellow-hammer or 

 flicker, Th© flicker we like particularly, since he will eat great 

 quantities of ants. He eats two or three thousand at one meal, 

 and sometimes five thousand. You know what trouble ants cause 

 us about the house and fields. The corn-root lice couldn't do any 

 harm if it were not for the ants that take care of them, and so we 

 think a great deal of the ant-eating flicker. There is only one 

 kind of woodpecker which does any harm, and that is the sap- 

 sucker. But he doesn't do very much harm here in this country. 

 He sometimes pecks holes in fruit trees, but not very often here. 

 He has a white line down the border of the folded wing. By 

 this you can distinguish him from the other woodpeckers which 

 are all beneficial. 



The night hawks and whip-poor-wills, with great gaping 

 mouths, gather up great quantities of insects in the twilight. 



The little flycatchers, the phoebe, and pewee, crested fly catch- 

 er, kingbird, etc., are great insect eaters. The kingbird, sometimes 

 called the bee-bird, doesn't often catch bees, as people think. 

 Whenever he does catch any, he takes drones because they cannot 

 sting him when he swallows them. And so he does good rather 

 than harm. He is an excellent bird because he defends the poul- 

 try yard from robber crows and hawks. Did you ever see him 

 after a crow or hawk? Well, he will whip them out everytime. 

 Have him nest about the house every time you can get him there. 



Then there is the old crow. He will eat young chickens 

 and hen eggs and little birds and their eggs out of the nest. He 

 \\\\\ sometimes peck holes in roasting ears, and when he pecks 

 holes in a roasting ear a good deal more than he eats will be left 

 to decay. So he is a pretty bad bird. But he destroys grubs and 

 May beetles, and if May beetles should get very much worse in 

 Illinois we might have to say in the future that he does more 

 good than harm, and we might have to protect him. 



The blue jay is a brother to the crow. He has many of the 

 bad habits of the crow. He will also destroy little birds in the 

 nest and the eggs, too, and so he is a pretty bad fellow. So the 



