Animal Helpers 



Almost all small birds are capital cater- 

 pillar hunters, and without them the produce 

 of the earth would be in great danger. We 

 cannot speak of all, but a few at any rate 

 may be mentioned. The tits are pretty little 

 birds, lively and sprightly, never still for a 

 moment, fluttering from tree to tree, carefully 

 examining the branches, hanging at the end 

 of the weakest twigs, maintaining themselves 

 in any position, often head downwards, follow- 

 ing the sway of their slender support without 

 letting go and without ceasing their inspection 

 of the worm-eaten shoots, which they split 

 open to extract the maggots and the eggs. 

 It has been calculated that one tit consumes 

 three hundred thousand insects' eggs in a 

 year. It is true that it has to supply the 

 needs of an exceptionally numerous family. 

 Twenty nestlings and more to be fed at the 

 same time in the same nest are not too great a 

 burden for its activity. It is then that the 

 shoots and cracks in the bark must be visited 

 in order to catch larvae, spiders, caterpillars 

 and maggots of every kind to feed the twenty 

 beaks always gaping with hunger in the nest. 

 The mother arrives with a caterpillar. The 

 family is in a state of excitement, twenty 

 beaks are opened, but only one receives the 



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