554 MAN CONTROLS SIS ENVIRONMENT FOR WEALTH 



A house wren bringing a caterpillar to her young 



eat over 8,000,000,000 insects in Michigan every year. On that 

 basis what good must they do in the United States ? The chicka- 

 dee is certainly one of man's best bird friends. 



House wren. This little migrant nests around our homes. 

 It is a great songster, and is a decided asset to us because of its 

 varied diet of cutworms, spiders, weevils, and May flies. It has 

 a 98 per cent insect diet. One wren was observed to catch 600 

 insects in one day. Its worst enemies are cats and larger birds. 

 A proper nesting box with a small entrance is one of its best means 

 of protection. The house wren is not quite five inches long. The 

 upper part is brown, the lower grayish brown and white. The wings, 

 flanks, and tail are slightly barred. It can be recognized easily by 

 its small size, coloring, incessant singing or chattering, and by the 

 fact that its tail is frequently held erect when the bird is at rest. 



Song sparrow. Another of our earliest visitors is the song 

 sparrow. The male is about six and one half inches long. It is 

 brown above with the head reddish-brown with blackish streaks. 

 A streak of gray runs through the center of the crown, and there 

 is a characteristic brown stripe on the sides of the throat. The 

 breast is streaked with brown on a white ground. Its nest is 

 usually on the ground or in a low bush. It is a friendly bird 

 and is often seen near houses, though it prefers moist areas farther 



