180 
ORDERS OE BIRDS— PERCHERS AND SINGERS 
Scapulars 
Secondaries 
C*hin 
..Zesser 
.JWiddle I Coverts. 
..GreaJter ' 
•) 
THE PARTS AND PLUMAGE OF A PERCHING-BIRD. 
we, then, be so utterly barbarous and mean as 
to engage in, or permit, the killing of our song- 
birds in order that they be used either as food 
for biped pigs, or to adorn(?) the cheap millinery 
of servant-girls? Never! 
Let it not be thought, however, that the Order 
Passeres has not a good share of birds of beauti- 
ful plumage. In our own fields and forests, be- 
hold the waxwing, the oriole, the cardinal, the 
tanager, the grosbeak, the magpie, the jay and 
the bobolink. The tropics contain the wonder- 
ful birds of paradise, and a bewildering array of 
humming-birds, cotingas, finches, ground-thrushes 
and many others. 
If the temperate zone lacks anything in perch- 
ing-birds of brilliant plumage, that lack is more 
than made up by the singing-birds. With all its 
wealth of bird-life, brilliant and plain, the tropics 
are generally silent, and a joyous or musical bird- 
song is rarely heard. Of the bird-cries that one 
occasionally hears, the majority are harsh and 
unpleasant squawks. The tropical day has 
neither robin nor mocking-bird, the night no 
whippoorwill. True, there is the awful “brain- 
fever” bird of the Indian night, but it is neither 
mu si dal nor joyous. One may spend months 
in the tropics, both of America and of the Far 
East, and in all that time hear less of real bird- 
song than can be heard on many an American 
farm in one day. 
As might be expected in a large Order of birds, 
the food habits of the perchers cover a wide 
variety of foods. The great majority prefer to 
live upon insects, and the young of all species 
are absolutely dependent upon soft-bodied in- 
sects, larvae and earth-worms. Many birds 
are really limited to insect-food, and can sub- 
sist on no other kind. Next in importance, 
and for the longest period, perhaps, come seeds 
and grain, especially the seeds of weeds that are 
a pest to the farmer. As a rule, fruit is taken 
in its brief season more as a dessert than as a staff 
of life. 
A very few species, like the crow, magpie and 
jay, eat meat whenever opportunity offers it, 
and welcome the discovery of raw meat or eggs. 
The great value of the perching-birds lies in the 
enormous quantities of insects which they con- 
