52 THE ROMANCE OF EVERIFARM 



ground are the robins, blackbirds, thrushes, meadow 

 larks, crows, quail, prairie chickens, and others, and 

 their food consists of grasshoppers, caterpillars, cut 

 worms, wire worms, corn-root worms, Hessian flies, 

 chinch bugs, army worms. May bettles, click beetles, 

 bill bugs, and many other insects. The birds that 

 feed in the trees on tree insects are of two kinds: 

 first, the warblers, catbirds, thrushes, cuckoos, cedar 

 birds, vireos, chickadees, blue jays, and orioles feed 

 on caterpillars and all leaf-eating insects, and second, 

 the woodpeckers, nuthatches, flickers, and titmice 

 take care of the insects and worms that bore into 

 the bark of trees, such as apple-tree and peach-tree 

 borers. The birds that feed at night in the air are 

 the night hawks, eating mosquitoes, moths, and fly- 

 ing ants. The owls — and there are many varieties 

 —feed on ground mice and small animals at night. 

 The birds that feed on the water are the gulls, ducks, 

 geese, cranes, bitterns and others. They also are per- 

 fectly adapted and equipped for the work that they 

 are to perform. The birds that take weed seeds for 

 their food are quail, prairie chickens, doves, and 

 snow birds, while the birds that look after the in- 

 sects of the garden are the wren, robin, chirping spar- 

 row, song sparrow, and quail. Those which feed in 

 the daytime on the field mice, gophers, and small 



