6 
BY THE WAYSIDE. 
bird having well been called “the flycatcher of 
the inner treetops.” 
A very large proportion of the winged in¬ 
sects fly by night. But even then they are 
not exempt from destruction by birds. In the 
twilight as well as the deeper shades of night 
the night hawks and whippoorwills are search¬ 
ing the air for insect food. Almost any winged 
insect, from the great Luna moth to the small¬ 
er flies, is liable to be taken by the capacious 
jaws of these silent messengers. 
THE HAWKS AND OWLS. 
While insects are by far the most destruc¬ 
tive animals with which the birds have to do, 
they are by no means the only one's. The 
great group of birds of prey, of which the 
hawks and owls are the most familiar exam¬ 
ples, serve a very useful purpose in keeping in 
check the mice and rats which otherwise would 
prove very troublesome. In some regions 
where the hawks and owls have been ruthlessly 
destroyed the damage from field mice has been 
very great. The indiscriminate destruction of 
all sorts of hawks and owls simply because 
some hawks and owls catch poultry is a foolish 
and wasteful practice. As a matter of fact 
the smaller owls and the most common hawks 
feed upon mice and insects and seldom or 
never take poultry. For example, the little 
screech owl is perhaps our most common owl. 
Most people think it a privilege to shoot it on 
sight. But its food, as determined by those ’ 
who have studied it long and carefully, con¬ 
sists chiefly of mice and insects. “At night¬ 
fall,” writes Dr. A. K. Fisher, “these birds 
begin their rounds, inspecting the vicinity of 
farmhouses, barns, and corn-cribs, making 
trips through the orchards and nurseries, glid¬ 
ing silently across the meadows or encircling 
the stacks of grain in search of mice and in¬ 
sects. Thousands upon thousands of mice of 
different kinds thus fall victims to their in¬ 
dustry. Their economic relations are there¬ 
fore of the greatest importance, particularly 
on account of the abundance of the species in 
many farming districts, and whoever destroys 
them through ignorance or prejudice should 
be severely condemned.” 
The commoner hawks are also beneficial, de¬ 
stroying great numbers of mice and insects. 
It is all right to trap or shoot a hawk or owl 
that is known to rob the poultry yard, but it 
is a mistake to destroy all sorts of these birds 
indiscriminately. 
ADAPTATION OF STRUCTURE TO FUNCTIONS. 
It would be a pity to make this study of the 
relation of birds to insects and other animals 
without calling attention at the same time 
to the adaptation of the structure of each bird 
to the feeding habits which so largely deter¬ 
mine its mode of life. There is not space here 
for the full discussion of this subject I should 
like to give, but a few lines of observation may 
be briefly indicated. 
The bird takes its food with or in its beak: 
Notice the strong, solid beak of the robin, the 
crow, and other birds that get food on the 
ground; the chisel-like beak of the woodpeck¬ 
ers; the very wide beak of the swallows, the 
night hawk, and the whippoorwill; the flat 
beak of the flycatchers; the pointed beak of the 
warblers; the long, probing beak of the wood¬ 
cock, plovers, and sandpipers; the spearlike 
beak of the herons and bitterns; the wide, flat 
beak of the ducks, and the hooked beak of the 
hawks and owls. Each of these is well adapted 
to getting the sort of food the bird requires. 
The manner and habits of flight of the birds 
are largely determined by the nature of its 
food: Notice the comparatively labored flight 
of the robin, crow, and other birds with large 
bodies; the quick, undulatory motion of the 
woodpeckers; the short, strong flights of the 
flycatchers; the easy, light-bodied flight of the 
swallows, night hawk, and whippoorwill; the 
restless motion of the warblers; and the lazy 
soaring of the hawks. See how the relation of 
wings to body in every case is adapted to the 
feeding habits of the bird. 
And in like manner the legs and feet are 
adapted to the mode of life: Notice the strong 
legs and well-developed toes of the birds that 
live on the ground in fields and meadows; the 
peculiar feet of the woodpeckers with which 
they climb vertical surfaces; the long legs of 
the plovers and sandpipers, the herons and 
bitterns; the webbed feet of the ducks, and 
the tearing talons of the birds of prey. 
In the study of these adaptations let the 
children see for themselves, and let them all 
