DOES IT PAY THE FARMER TO PROTECT BIRDS? 169 



valuable cherry crop and so save the robin from the orchardist's just 

 resentment. If so, all will be well with the robin; for in respect to 

 his general food habits he is exemplary enough, and destroys many 

 noxious insects, including cutworms and caterpillars. The food 

 habits of the robin have been more carefully studied, perhaps, than 

 those of any other of our birds, and special attention has been paid 

 to the subject by the Biological Survey. That the robin's services as 

 a whole far outweigh the injury he incontestably does to small fruits 

 is the opinion of all investigators, and by the farmer at large he can ill 

 be spared. 



The catbird, to some extent, shares the ill name earned by the 

 robin, and for the same reasons; but he is comparatively harmless, 

 being neither so abundant near orchards nor so bold a marauder. 

 Nevertheless, the strawberry patch too often knows him to the sorrow 

 of its owner. He also consumes many insects cutworms, caterpil- 

 lars, and grasshoppers among the number. 



The smaller members of the thrush family, the wood thrush, 

 hermit thrush, and others, are highly insectivorous, and are to be 

 credited with nothing but good. Moreover their melody raises them 

 to the highest rank among American songsters. 



TITMICE. The titmice, like the warblers, are tree frequenters, and 

 the insects they pursue are of the same general character as those 

 eaten by their more nervous and sprightly cousins. Instead of 

 hurrying from tree to tree, and from one branch to another like the 

 warblers, the titmice conduct a comparatively slow and painstaking 

 search and go over their sylvan hunting grounds much more care- 

 fully. Another and a far more important fact to their credit is that, 

 like the nuthatches (PL VII), they are practically non-migratory, 

 and instead of scurrying off to the sunny Tropics on the first hint of 

 cold weather, as do most of the warblers, they usually winter where 

 they summer. Thus the farmer enjoys the benefit of their services 

 the year round, and hence has twice the incentive to protect them that 

 he has in the case of the migratory species. 



SWALLOWS. The swallows are among the most insectivorous of 

 birds, and it is difficult to overestimate the extent of their services to 

 agriculture. They are flycatchers preeminently, and Nature has been 

 at the utmost pains to qualify them for the delicate task she has set 

 for them the capture of small insects moving with rapid and uncer- 

 tain flight through the air. Endowed with the power of swift and 

 enduring flight, swallows cleave the air without apparent effort, 

 turning this way and that, now falling, now rising, following the 

 movements of their prey. The list of species is not lengthy, six 

 only in the States east of the Mississippi and but one more west of 

 that river, but not one of the number could be spared without loss to 



