UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
upon the buds of the birch, the apple, and other 
trees. 
The flicker will thrive where other woodpeckers 
would starve, because he is a ground-pecker as 
well, and lives upon ants and other ground in- 
sects. 
In the struggle for existence the red squirrel is 
more than a match for his big brother, the gray, 
because he is more energetic, and has a wider range 
of diet. When hard put, he will come to your or- 
chard and garden and chip up the unripe apples and 
pears for the immature seeds in them; he will cut 
out the germ from the green elm-flakes; he will rob 
birds’ nests of eggs and of young; he will find or cut 
his way into your house and barn, and will take toll 
of your crops in a way that the gray squirrel will not 
do; on the other hand, his lesser brother the chip- 
munk will survive him, because he regularly lays 
up winter stores in his den in the ground, and is snug 
and warm with a full larder, while the red squirrel 
is picking up a precarious subsistence in the cold, 
snow-choked woods. The bear lasts after the wolf 
is gone, because he is a miscellaneous feeder, and is 
rarely reduced to extremities. For the same reason 
the hawk starves where the crow thrives. If the 
crow cannot get flesh, he will put up with fruit, and 
grain, and nuts. 
The flycatchers among our birds are far less nu- 
merous than the fruit- and seed-eaters, and the her- 
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