148 The Bird 
devouring one of these worms, the whole bird is lighted 
up, and after its meal the bird’s bill is illumined by the 
mucus which adheres to it. 
Starfish and sea-urchins are sought out by crows, 
ravens and gulls, and perhaps other birds. They break 
into them by main force, or 
else carry them to a height 
and drop them on the rocks. 
I have even seen a Bald 
Eagle, when fish and Fish- 
hawks were scarce, deliber- 
ately break into and devour 
a green-spined urchin. 
If, as is said, immense bow- 
head whales subsist entirely 
on minute larval shrimps, 
then it is not surprising that many thousands of shore- 
birds are well nourished by the myriads of shrimps and 
Fie. 114.—Snail. 
prawns, large and small, which every tide leaves exposed. 
It is a mere truism to say that insects form the sole 
food of scores of species of birds, and enter into the diet 
of many hundreds. It has been said that without birds, 
within a space of ten years, the earth would not be habit- 
able for man, owing to the unrestricted increase of nox- 
ious insects. There is doubtless not a single group of in- 
sects which does not suffer from the appetite of one or 
more species of bird. The eggs and larve are dug and 
pried out of their burrows in the wood by woodpeckers 
and creepers; those underground are scratched and 
clawed up to view by quail, partridges, and many spar- 
