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 



FIG. 114.-Snail. 



shrimps, 



then it is not surprising that many thousands of shore- 

 birds are well nourished by the myriads of shrimps and 

 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 larvae 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- 



