Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-09-01
What the Birds Eat.

AT recent meeting oil the ontario agrl-
cultural commission held at London, Will
liam Il. Sanders, the well-known Canadian
ornithologist, gave an account OF some in
sectivorous birds that were worthy of en-
couragement. lie said he had been engaged
in the study of birds for the last seven or
eight years, and had examined the crops of
probably two hundred; of the birds which
were purely insectvorous, the most common
was the large family of warblers, of which
the yellow warbler and the redstart mostly
took their food on the wing, but partially
on the branches of trees of the birds which
took their food exclusively on the wing there
were the ny-catchers, which included the
king bird and the peewee their food was
chiefly flies. Moths were numerousy caught
by nighthawks, and these altogether with
the swallows he considered birds beneficial
TO the farmer and fruit grower. Of the
birds which fed partly on the wing and
partly on trees, the food of the yellow war
bier consisted chiefly of the Larvae and eggs
of moths, which they took from the leaves
of the same class, and similarly beneficial.
The bluebird fed mostly on insects, though
it might take grain when its favorite diet
was not obtainable. The insects devoured
by the last described class of birds were
mostly injurious to the orchardist and the
farmer. The nuthatch, which was very
common bird, stayed in these ATTITUDES the
year round, and lived almost entirely on in
sects and their eggs, and chrysaides. The
woodpeckers mostly took their food upon
trees. The red-headed variety were gen
orally considered pest on account of their
devouring so much fruit, chiefly cherries
and apples. The high-hoder woodpecker,
though it occasionally ate few cherries,
was on the whole bird which should be
protected, owing to the number of insects it
devoured. The hairy and downy woodpeck-
ers and the yellow belied variety were
commonly denominated sap-suckers, and ac-
cused of destroying fruit and other trees by
extracting sap from them. He had never
seen trees injured bytbem, and they were
beneficial birds in his estimation
Of the birds which ate their food upon
the ground there was first the thrushes, in
Guiding the robin, the tawny thrush, the
brown thrush and the cat-bird. From his
examination of the maws of the robin he
had very little to say in its favor as they
were very destructive to cherries and other
fruits, and ate very few insects-chiehy
coleoptera-and then only when it could not
get fruit the cat-bird was allied to the
robin, and like it was destructive to rasp-
berries the tawny and brown thrushes were
almost exclusively insectivorous. The food
of the blackbird family-which included the
red-wing blackbird, the crow backbird, the
COW bird, the meadow lark and the oriole
consists largely Of beetles and Larvae the
crow blackbird, however, lived almost en-
tirely on grain; while the COW bird, like the
European cuckoo was decidedly injurious
by laying its eggs in the nests of other and
beneficial birds, whose young were generally
starved to DEATH owing to the greater size
and more clamorous appetite of the intrud-
ing brood; the red-winged blackbird fed
on the Larvae of beetles in the spring, but in
the fall it devoured grain
About twenty-five per cent of the food of
the meadow lark consisted of beetles and
other insects, the remainder being vegetable
food, but of what kind he had been unable
to ascertain. The oriole was beneficial TO
the farmer. The sparrows were all pretty
much grain feeders, though the gray bird or
chipping sparrow fed largely on insects.
One variety, the purple finch, devoured the
buds Of trees, and was injurious on that ac-
count The indigo bird fed mostly on the
seeds of grass and weeds The English
sparrow seemed to feed about equally on
seeds and insects, but he had not examined
their stomachs. He believed the house
wren fed entirely on insects and their Larvae
and like the black-capped tit, or chickadee
was entirely beneficial; the wax-wing, OIL
cherry bird, was never injurious to fruit
and the butcher-brd was an enemy to the
farmer by killing small insectivorous birds
the jay and the hawk were injurious for the
same reason; the crow fed largely on grain