GREAT VALUE OF PERCHING BIRDS 259 
insect food, and can subsist on no other kind. Next in im- 
portance, and for the longest period, perhaps, come seeds 
and grain, especially the seeds of weeds that are a pest to 
the farmer. As a rule, fruit is taken in its brief season more 
as a dessert than as a staff of life. 
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THE PARTS AND PLUMAGE OF A PERCHING BIRD. 
A very few species, like the crow, magpie and jay, eat meat 
whenever opportunity offers it, and welcome the discovery of 
raw meat or eggs. 
The great value of the perching birds lies in the enormous 
quantities of insects which they consume as food.’ These 
1 The Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture has 
published many important bulletins and short papers on the food habits of our 
birds, with especial reference to the species either most beneficial or most harmful 
to the farmer and fruit-grower. A list of those now available, and the terms on 
which they are procurable, will be furnished by the Department upon application. 
