Animal Helpers 



forages among the rising seeds and refreshes 

 himself with the young lettuces and the first 

 leaves of the green peas. But when the time 

 of laying eggs has come the impudent robber 

 becomes an exceptionally good helper. Twenty 

 times in the hour at least the father and 

 mother in turn bring a beakful to the young 

 — sometimes a caterpillar, sometimes an 

 insect large enough to be divided into quarters, 

 or again a plump larva, a grasshopper or any 

 other prey. In one week the brood will 

 consume three thousand insects, larvae, cater- 

 pillars and maggots of every kind. Round 

 the nest of one sparrow the remains of seven 

 hundred cockchafers have been counted, 

 besides innumerable small insects. This was 

 the amount of food required to bring up one 

 brood. So children must not harm any of 

 the little birds that protect us from the 

 destructive insects. 



Printed in Great Britain Jy Wyman & Sons Ltd., London, Reading and Faketiham. 



