WHAT BIRDS DO FOR US 7 



The Care of Foliage 



To such birds as haunt the terminal twigs of trees and 

 shrubbery — ^the warbler tribe and the vireos, chiefly — was 

 assigned the duty of cleaning the foliage on the ends of 

 the branches, where many kinds of insects deposit their 

 eggs that their young may have the freshest, tenderest 

 leaves to feed upon. Some few warblers, in the great 

 family, confine their labors to the ground and under- 

 growth, it is true, and a few others pick their living out of 

 the trunks of trees, but they are the exceptions which 

 prove the rule. Countless millions of larvae, plant lice, 

 ants, cankerworms, leaf-hoppers, flies, and the smaller 

 caterpillars go to supply the tireless energy of these charm- 

 ing little visitors each time they migrate through oiu" neigh- 

 borhood. Generally speaking, the vireos, or greenlets, 

 are less nervous and more deliberate and thorough in their 

 search than the warblers. Cocking their heads to one 

 side, they scrutinize the under half of the leaves where 

 insects have sought protection from just such sharp eyes as 

 theirs, as well as from rain and sun. After a warbler has 

 snatched a hasty lunch in any given place, the vireo can 

 follow him and find a square meal to be enjoyed at leisure. 



But vireos and warblers, which are smaller than spar- 

 rows, however efficient as destroyers of the lesser insects, 

 would be powerless to grapple with the larger pests found 

 in the same places. Accordingly, another gang of larger 

 feathered workers helps take care of the f ohage for that 

 most thorough of housekeepers. Dame Nature. Hidden 

 among the foliage of trees and shrubbery, an immense 

 army of feathered workers — ^many of our most beautiful 

 birds and finest songsters among them — serve her with- 



