188 . NATURESTUDY REVIEW [15:5— May, 1919 



Hummingbirds 



These "flowers on vibrating wings," as they have been called, 

 will visit any garden where there are flowers. The food of these 

 dainty creatures consists largely of insects and nectar. Adults 

 feed on gnats, ants and aphids, while the young are fed on flies, 

 beetles and spiders. They take their insects in mid air and also 

 those small insects visiting flowers. The tongue is especially 

 adapted to sweeping up insects and sucking up nectar. The 

 hummingbirds do a very great work in our flower gardens, in 

 carrying pollen from flower to flower and thus helping to produce 

 good seed. 



Chimney Swifts 



Unfortunately the old fashioned chimneys which enticed these 

 birds to build, are no longer an attraction ; but it is safe to say that 

 a chimney in which the swifts build is a valuable asset to the 

 garden, for they are entirely insectivorous all their lives. Beetles, 

 flies and ants are their chief food, which they gather while on the 

 wing. They are partial to potato beetles and the tarnished plant 

 bug, both of which can well be spared from the garden, this bug 

 being one of the worst and most hopeless pests, since it attacks 

 everything. 



The Swallows 



The purple martins live where we put up a house for them and 

 this should be where the garden may get the benefit of their tireless 

 activities in hunting food. While they feed largely on flies, gnats 

 and mosquitoes, yet there are records of their taking moths, flies, 

 beetles, grasshoppers and other injurious insects. One record 

 quoted by Professor Weed, states, that one of the compartments of 

 a martin box was found literally packed with the dried remains of 

 the little yellow and black squash beetle — a most valuable record 

 to prove that a martin house near a garden is most desirable. 



The bam and eaves swallows are insectivorous all their lives, 

 and destroy flies, weevils, ants and mosquitoes and other injurious 

 insects. Those, who are fortunate enough to have a l)am near 

 the garden, had best make a swallow hole in the gable for the bam 

 swallows, and encourage the eaves swallows to build under the 

 eaves, for we can be assured that these birds will swoop back and 

 forth over the garden, snapping up any of the little winged pests 

 that may be flying there. 



