DOES IT PAY THE FARMER TO PROTECT BIRDSf 169 
valuable cherry crop and so save the robin from the orchardist’s just 
resentment. If so, all will be well with the robin; for in respect to 
his general food habits he is exemplary enough, and destroys many 
noxious insects, including cutworms and caterpillars. The food 
habits of the robin have been more carefully studied, perhaps, than 
those of any other of our birds, and special attention has been paid 
to the subject by the Biological Survey. That the robin’s services as 
a whole far outweigh the injury he incontestably does to small fruits 
is the opinion of all investigators, and by the farmer at large he can ill 
be spared. 
The catbird, to some extent, shares the ill name earned by the 
robin, and for the same reasons; but he is comparatively harmless, 
being neither so abundant near orchards nor so bold a marauder. 
Nevertheless, the strawberry patch too often knows him to the sorrow 
of its owner. He also consumes many insects—cutworms, caterpil¬ 
lars, and grasshoppers among the number. 
The smaller members of the thrush family, the wood thrush, 
hermit thrush, and others, are highly insectivorous, and are to be 
credited with nothing but good. Moreover their melody raises them 
to the highest rank among American songsters. 
Titmice.— The titmice, like the warblers, are tree frequenters, and 
the insects they pursue are of the same general character as those 
eaten by their more nervous and sprightly cousins. Instead of 
hurrying from tree to tree, and from one branch to another like the 
warblers, the titmice conduct a comparatively slow and painstaking 
search and go over their sylvan hunting grounds much more care¬ 
fully. Another and a far more important fact to their credit is that, 
like the nuthatches (PL VII), they are practically non-migratory, 
and instead of scurrying off to the sunny Tropics on the first hint of 
cold weather, as do most of the warblers, they usually winter where 
they summer. Thus the farmer enjoys the benefit of their services 
the year round, and hence has twice the incentive to protect them that 
he has in the case of the migratory species. 
Swallows.— The swallows are among the most insectivorous of 
birds, and it is difficult to overestimate the extent of their services to 
agriculture. They are flycatchers preeminently, and Nature has been 
at the utmost pains to qualify them for the delicate task she has set 
for them—the capture of small insects moving with rapid and uncer¬ 
tain flight through the air. Endowed with the power of swift and 
enduring flight, swallows cleave the air without apparent effort, 
turning this way and that, now falling, now rising, following the 
movements of their prey. The list of species is not lengthy, six 
only in the States east of the Mississippi and but one more west of 
that river, but not one of the number could be spared without loss to 
