74 PASSERES. TODID.E. 



to swallow it. It is instructive to note by how 

 various means the wisdom of God has ordained a 

 given end to be attained. The Swallow and the 

 Tody live on the same prey, insects on the wing; 

 and the short, hollow, and feeble wings of the 

 latter, are as effectual to him, as the long and 

 powerful pinions are to the Swallow. He has no 

 powers to employ in pursuing insects, but he waits 

 till they come within his circumscribed range, and no 

 less certainly secures his meal. 



I have never seen the Tody eating vegetable food ; 

 but I have occasionally found in its stomach, among 

 minute coleopterous and hymenopterous insects, a 

 few small seeds. One, which I kept in a cage, 

 would snatch worms from me with impudent auda- 

 city; and then beat them violently against the 

 perch or sides of the cage to divide, before he 

 swallowed, them. 



One, captured with a net in April, on being 

 turned into a room, began immediately to catch 

 flies, and other minute insects that flitted about, 

 particularly little destructive Tineadce that infested 

 my dried birds. At this employment he continued 

 incessantly, and most successfully, all that evening, 

 and all the next day from earliest dawn to dusk. 

 He would sit on the edge of the tables, on the lines, 

 on shelves, or on the floor, ever glancing about, 

 now and then flitting up into the air, when the 

 snap of his beak announced a capture, and he re- 

 turned to some station to eat it. He would peep 

 into the lowest and darkest corners, even under 

 the tables, for the little globose, long-legged spiders, 



