260 



GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



II. 



He, who would become acquainted with our com- 

 mon birds, must seek them in their chosen haunts; 

 for in the ages of the past each kind has become fitted 

 or adapted to live a certain life to seek its food in a 

 certain place. In the spring, keen-eyed, sharp-eared 

 robins hop leisurely over the surface of our lawns and 

 gardens and drag earth-worms and cut-worms galore 



Fig.73-Robin. (After Beal.) 



from their hiding-places; long-legged snipe wade the 

 shallow water along the margins of ponds and 

 streams and probe with their long, soft bills the muck 

 and mud in search of worms and leeches ; web-footed 

 wild ducks swim and dive in ponds and rivers, silting 

 through their broad lamellate bills the mud and ooze 

 for small fish, shrimps, and other water-loving forms;* 



