Economic Reasons for Protection iii 



he undertakes to inspect a particular twig. He 

 goes at it as if he knew his business and took 

 a pride in doing it right. He studies his subject 

 from every point of view — from above, from 

 both sides, and from below, thinking nothing of 

 swinging upside down if this position affords him 

 a better view of any particular spot. And woe 

 to the pests which may be hiding from him. 

 Canker-worm eggs here, a small caterpillar there, 

 and a bark beetle behind that twig, and the 

 chickadee goes back and forth, up and down, and 

 round and round, meanwhile chatting gaily to a 

 dozen fellows, all working on different twigs, un- 

 til that little job is finished and he passes on to 

 the next one. Prof. E. D. Sanderson, who has 

 carefully studied the chickadee in Michigan, 

 estimates that this bird destroys every year in 

 that one state about eight thousand million 

 insects. 



Certain warblers, the nuthatches, and brown 

 creepers, devote themselves chiefly to the insects 

 which infest the bark of the trees, and gather in 

 many which the woodpeckers have passed by. 



Mocking birds, thrashers, catbirds, thrushes, 

 robins, and bluebirds should not be required to 

 give evidence of their material usefulness in 

 order to insure our protection. Almost all of 

 them are world famous as musicians and their 



