BIRDS. 177 



we would long for a sight of them in their varied form and 

 coloring, even if they did not sing for us. Many of the wild 

 birds, the game birds, of course, supply food for man, and their 

 usefulness no one questions. But, apart from their singing and 

 their beauty of form and color, of what use are the other birds 

 the robins, the bluebirds, the yellow-birds, the blackbirds, 

 the woodpeckers, the blue jays, the meadow larks and the very 

 many other birds of our gardens and fields? That depends on 

 what they feed upon. 



FOOD OF BIRDS. Many birds are fond of fruit and will take 

 some of the cherries and berries of the garden, others will help 

 themselves in the grain field. This, however, does not prove 

 that they are a nuisance and should be destroyed. As a rule 

 the birds feed upon the food which is most readily got weed 

 seeds, fruits, or insects. If fruit is plentiful they will take some 

 fruit, but if insects are about they will greedily pick them up 

 and in quantities that will astonish us. Birds that feed upon 

 insects are called "insectivorous." Most of our common birds 

 are more or less insectivorous, and while they do some injury 

 by robbing the fruit trees, berry-bushes and grain fields, they 

 do far more good by devouring great quantities of insects that 

 if allowed to live would inflict most serious injury. The only 

 way that this can be proven by you is by carefully watching 

 the birds as they go about through the garden, or as they carry 

 food to their nestlings. On examining the stomachs of many 

 birds that are supposed to be the most destructive to fruit, 

 large quantities of destructive insects have been found. If the 

 birds do take some fruit it must be remembered that as a rule 

 they pay well for all they take. It may be set down as a safe 

 rule that most of our birds do more good than harm, and our 

 aim should be to encourage them, and not to destroy them. 

 It has been estimated that one bird will devour or destroy 

 about 2,400 insects in a year. Even the English sparrow, 

 blackbird, and crow are known to destroy large numbers of 



