CHAPTER VI 
THE FOOD OF BIRDS 
HE organs and physiological functions of a bird, 
as of animals generally, are so interrelated and 
intimately dependent on each other that it is a 
rather difficult matter to consider any single one by 
itself without being led into another’s province. For 
example: we have for the subject of this chapter the 
food of birds, and unless we are very careful, we shall 
overstep the bounds of our theme. To limit our subject 
clearly we will consider only adult birds. 
We have all seen the pestiferous sparrows picking 
up grain in the chicken-yard; we have admired the skill 
which the red-breasted robin exhibits in spying and 
extracting earthworms on our lawns; our memory re- 
calls the osprey dropping upon his fish, and the wood- 
pecker chiselling to the wood-borer; but did we ever stop 
a while and attempt a “‘bird’s-eye view” of all the classes 
of substances which birds find good as food? 
The ways in which this food is sought and caught, 
killed and prepared are wonderfully varied, and some 
idea of the remarkable variety of substances laid under 
contribution as food by birds of different orders may 
be had from a brief review of the principal divisions 
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