The Food of Birds 



149 



rows; warblers and vireos scan every twig and leaf; 

 flycatchers, like the cat family, lie in watch and spring 

 after their prey, only in the air instead of on the ground, 

 feeding more particularly on low-flying insects; while 

 swifts, swallows, and martins glean their harvest from the 

 diurnal hosts of high-flying winged creatures. Many 



FIG. 115. Crab. 



times when we think hummingbirds are taking dainty 

 sips of nectar from the flowers, they are in reality pick- 

 ing minute spiders and flies from the deep cups of the co- 

 rollas. When night falls, the insects which have chosen 

 that time as the safer to carry on their business of life 

 are pounced upon by nocturnal feathered beings the 

 cavernous mouths of the whippoorwills engulf them as 

 they rise from their hiding-places, and the bristles of 



