BIRDS 



167 



Fighting? What birds do you observe whipping or driving birds 

 larger than themselves? Which parent do young birds most re- 

 semble? Name the purposes for which birds sing. Which senses 

 are very acute? Why? Dull? Why? Can you test your state- 

 ments by experiment? A partridge usually sits with iS to 24 

 eggs in nest. About how long after laying first egg before sitting 

 begins? Do several partridge hens lay in the same nest? 



Haunts. — Name some birds that are found most often in 

 the following localities : about our homes, in gardens and or- 

 chards, fields and meadows, 

 in bushes, in the woods, 

 in secluded woods, around 

 streams of water, in thick- 

 ets, in pine woods. 



Size. — Name birds as 

 large as a robin or larger, 

 nearly as large, half as large, 

 much smaller. 



Colors. — Which sex is 

 more brilliant? What ad- 

 vantage are bright colors to 

 one sex? What advantage 

 are dull colors to the other 

 sex? Which have yellow breasts, red patch on heads, red or 

 chestnut breasts, blue backs, black all over? 



Habits. — Name the birds that walk, jump, swim, live in flocks, 

 sing while flying, fly in undulations, in circles, have labored flight. 



Such books as Wright's "Birdcraft" (Macmillan, N. Y.), Clark's 

 "Birds of Lakeside and Prairie" (Mumford, Chicago), and Pear- 

 son's "Stories of Bird Life" (B. F. Johnson, Richmond), will be 

 of great help. The last book is delightfully written, and is one of 

 the few treating of bird life in the South. 



Economic Importance of Birds. — Farmers find their 

 most valuable allies in the class aves, as birds are the dead- 

 liest enemies of insects and gnawing animals. To the in- 

 numerable robbers which devastate our fields and gardens, 

 nature opposes the army of birds. They are less numerous 



Fig. 310. — House Wren. 



