CHAPTER VIII 

 BIRD STUDY 



BIRDS are the most fascinating and entertaining of our 

 wild animals. Everybody likes the little feathered song- 

 sters. Their nimble, careless ways, their evident enjoyment 

 of their freedom, their wonderful power of flight, their cheer- 

 ful twittering or their bursts of melody all tend, for the mo- 

 ment at least, to make our spirits lighter and happier. The 

 birds make the fields and woods full of pleasure for us. 

 . Shy as most birds are, many kinds seem to prefer the 

 neighborhood of man. Man plants and cultivates vege- 

 tables, grains, and fruit. Since every cultivated plant has 

 its insect enemies, the greater the cultivation of farms and 

 orchards, the greater the food supply of the birds. Hence we 

 find more birds about farms and villages than in the dense 

 forest or in uncultivated and unsettled regions. This ap- 

 plies chiefly to the song birds, and is, of course, not true of 

 many game birds. The birds are a very great help to the 

 farmer and fruit grower, and if they do take a few berries or 

 a little grain, we should not begrudge it to them. So we 

 have a practical reason why we are, or should be, interested 

 in the birds. 



There are many other associations that make us love the 

 birds. It almost seems to the farmer's boy that the first blue- 

 bird is the cause of spring. And though one swallow may 



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