ANIMALS THAT DESTROY INSECTS 



179 



FIG. 105. Toad. 



If you wish to raise a colony of toads, place a pair on 

 a stone partly out of the water in a partly filled pail or 

 jar. After the eggs are 

 laid, watch them as 

 they hatch into tad- 

 poles. The tadpoles 

 should be fed with bits 

 of meat or bread, until 

 they change into toads. 



Keep the garden well 

 stocked with toads, and 

 very little damage from 

 insects need be feared. 



Birds. The largest number of the birds that fly about 

 our homes are insect destroyers. Besides delighting the 

 eye with their beauty and filling the world full of song, 

 they are saving the farmers millions of dollars each year. 

 How foolish it is to shoot these valuable birds or to rob 

 their nests ! 



The birds living on insects have greatly decreased in 

 number in the past few years, and the insects have in- 

 creased so greatly that the farmer and the gardener have 

 been put to extra labor to preserve their crops. 



The birds living largely on insects, worms, etc., are 

 swallows, martins, vireos, woodpeckers, chickadees, wrens, 

 cuckoos, swifts, and fly-catchers. 



The robin and the blue bird live on about equal quan- 

 tities of insects and fruit. Because they come so early 

 in the spring and destroy so many of the insects before 

 they have laid their eggs for the season, these birds are 

 of great value. 



