PROBLEMS OF BIRD LIFE 



THE principal problems which birds, and 

 indeed all other creatures, have to solve, 

 have been well stated to be Food, Safety, and 

 Reproduction. In regard to safety, or the art of 

 escaping danger, we are all familiar with the rav- 

 ages which hawks, owls, foxes, and even red squir- 

 rels commit among the lesser feathered creatures, 

 but there are other dangers which few of us 

 suspect. 



Of all creatures birds are perhaps the most 

 exempt from liability to accident, yet they not 

 infrequently lose their lives in most unexpected 

 ways. Once above trees and buildings, they have 

 the whole upper air free of every obstacle, and 

 though their flight sometimes equals the speed of 

 a railroad train, they have little to fear when well 

 above the ground. Collision with other birds 

 seems scarcely possible, although it sometimes 

 does occur. "When a covey of quail is flushed, 

 occasionally two birds will collide, at times meet- 

 ing with such force that both are stunned. Fly- 

 catchers darting at the same insect will now and 

 then come together, but not hard enough to injure 

 either bird. 



Even the smallest and most wonderful of all 



