WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



43 



insects than deciduous forests^ and so furnish a more meager 

 food supply for the birds. Those birds that live and breed in 

 the deep woods, however, are especially fitted to destroy the 

 tree's enemies. 



*'This care of the trees is kept up throughout the year by 

 the ebb and flow of the tide of bird life. In the chill days of 

 March and early April, when sunshine and shadow fleck the 

 lingering snow, in silent, leafless woods and along swollen 

 streams, the lusty Fox Sparrow searches for seeds and for dor- 

 mant insects, which only await the warmer sun of April or 

 May to emerge from their hiding places and attack the trees. 

 This sparrow and its companions, the Tree Sparrow and the 

 Junco, soon pass on to the north, making way for the White- 

 throats and Thrushes, which continue the good work, to be fol- 

 lowed in their turn by other Thrushes and Towhees. Birds are 

 not plentiful in the woods in early April, but nevertheless dili- 

 gent Titmice, Woodpeckers, Jays, Nuthatches, and Kinglets are 

 there and at work. In the warm days of May, when nature has 

 awakened from her long winter sleep, when the little, light 

 green oak leaves are just opening, when the bright young birch 

 leaves decorate, but do not hide the twigs; when every leaflet 

 vies with the early flowers in beauty, and every branch upholds 

 its grateful offering; when insects which were dormant during 

 the earlier days of the year become active, and their swarming 

 offspring appear on bud and leaf — then the south wind brings 

 the migratory "host of birds which winter near the equator. 

 Unnoticed by men, they sweep through the woods, they encom- 

 pass the trees ; flight after flight passes along on its way to the 

 north, all resting daily in the woods and gleaning insects ere 

 they go. No one who has not watched these beautiful birds 

 hour after hour and day after day, and who has not listened to 

 their multitudinous notes, as, night after night, they have 

 passed overhead, can realize the numbers that sweep through 

 the woods in the spring and fall migrations."* 



It should be said, also, that a large number of resident 

 birds keep up the fight against insects all the year round. 



♦From "Useful Birds and tlieir Protection" by Edward H. 

 Forbush. 



