556 MAN CONTROLS HIS ENVIRONMENT FOR WEALTH 



nest of mud — often under old bridges, around barns, or some- 

 times under a barn floor. Its food consists of browntail and 

 gypsy moths, grasshoppers, cankerworms, beetles, flies, and in 

 the South cotton-boll weevils. The phoebe is about seven inches 

 long, dusky olive-brown above, yellowish white underneath, with 

 wings and tail dusky. The head is slightly crested, and the bill 

 and feet are black. It is one of our early visitors. 



Barn swallow. Another bird with nesting habits similar to 

 those of the phoebe is the barn swallow, which makes a nest plas- 

 tered to the rafters of a barn or outbuilding. While most birds 

 decrease in number with the cutting of forests and the building of 

 cities, the barn swallow has increased because it feeds on insects 

 which live on crops in cleared fields. It eats moths of cutworms, 

 codling moths, leaf cutters, and many flies, bugs, and beetles. In 

 the South it is an enemy of the cotton-boll weevil. This swallow 

 is between six and seven inches in length. It is dark steel blue 

 above, with throat and upper breast chestnut ; the lower breast 



and abdomen buff. The tail 

 is deeply forked, showing 

 white markings when spread. 

 Catbird. Another bird 

 which nests near houses and 

 prefers the company of man is 

 the catbird. From early May 

 to late October its various 

 calls and songs are the de- 

 light of all bird lovers, for it 

 is a great mimic and somewhat 

 of a tease. The catbird, al- 

 though it eats much fruit, is 

 an insect feeder and gives its 

 young insect food. Like other 

 birds, it eats the food most 

 abundant at the time. Birds 

 taken from a canker-infested 

 orchard made insects 95 per cent of their diet, although normally 

 they eat over 60 per cent fruit. A. catbird is about nine inches 



Brownell 



Catbird entering nest. 



