WHAT BIRDS DO FOR US 17 



watched an orchard oriole that brought her young family 

 to feast in a tamarisk bush in the garden, pick forty-seven 

 basket-worms from their cleverly concealed baskets in 

 fifteen minutes. 



But how the bright berries, hanging on the dogwood, 

 mountain ash, pokeweed, choke-cherry, shadbush, part- 

 ridge vine, wintergreen, bittersweet, juniper, Virginia 

 creeper, and black alder, cry aloud to every passing bird, 

 "EAT ME," like Alice's marmalade in Wonderland! 

 Many plants depend as certainly on the birds to distribute 

 their seeds as on bees and other insects to transfer the 

 pollen of their flowers. It is said that the cuckoo-pint or 

 spotted arum of Europe, a relative of our jack-in-the- 

 pulpit, actually poisons her messengers carrying seed, 

 because the decaying flesh of the dead birds affords the 

 most nourishing food for her seed to germinate in. Hap- 

 pily we have no such murderous pest here. Our wild 

 trees, shrubbery plants, and vines are honorable partners 

 of the birds. They feed them royally, asking in return 

 only that the undigested seeds or kernels which pass 

 through the alimentary canal uninjured may be dropped 

 far away from the parent plant, to found new colonies. 

 For how much of the earth's beauty are not birds, the 

 seed-carriers, responsible! 



Up-to-date farmers who wish to protect their culti- 

 vated fruits have learned that birds actually have the 

 poor taste to prefer wild ones, and so they plant them on 

 the outskirts of the farm, along walls and fences. They 

 have also learned that many birds puncture grapes and 

 drink fruit juice simply because they are thirsty. Pans 

 kept filled with fresh water compete successfully with the 

 grape arbor. 



