RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



hand. See with what nicety he poises upon the slende^ 

 twigs ; notice the agility he displays in exploring every 

 branch, now stopping to secure some insect or its larvae, 

 or pausing to utter his charming song. He visits the old 

 ivy-covered walls as well, in whose crevices he finds 

 abundant food, and mark how nimbly he explores the 

 many crannies, drawing forth the spiders lurking there. 

 Nowhe sits motionless after the mannerof the Flycatcher, 

 to dart into the air at the first passing insect, securing it 

 with becoming agility and ease. You not unfrequently 

 see him exploring the bark of some noble son of the 

 forest, for he can do so just as easily as the sombre 

 clothed little Creeper himself If you closely observe 

 him, when so engaged, you find his motions more or less 

 spiral, and unlike the Creeper, who invariably ascends a 

 tree in a straight or nearly straight course. By this 

 peculiar motion the Willow Warbler gains an ample 

 meal, for let the observer examine the bark of most trees, 

 and he will be surprised at the quantity of insect life 

 lurking there. 



The food of the Willow Warbler from its arrival until 

 July is composed of insects and larvae, but when the fruit 

 is ripe they forsake for the most part their woodland 

 haunts, and subsist upon the sweet and luscious produce 

 of the garden. But even in the fruit season they are deadly 

 foes to insects, and one in particular, namely the ' daddy 

 long legs,' which sometimes occurs in such numbers as 

 almost to amount to a plague, the grass and bushes 

 swarming with them. The infinite amount of good all 

 birds perform is manifest to every careful observer of 

 them. In what state would the surrounding fields and 

 gardens be if it were not for the army of small birds 

 which tenant them 1 I dare not hazard a conjecture as 

 to the probable end of vegetation on the fair hills and 



