File:Birds and nature (1900) (14568616298).jpg

Identifier: birdsnature821900chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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handsome greenish-whiteeggs, spotted and wreathed with purple.—J. Mayne Baltimore. Olive Thorne Miller, in her fascinatinglittle book, The First Book of Birds,speaking of how the birds work for us,says : Chickadees like to eat the eggS ofcankerworms; and for a single meal oneof these tiny birds will eat two hundredand fifty eggs, and he will take severalmeals a day. Now, cankerworms destroyour apples. When they get into an or-chard in force, it looks, as Miss Merriamsays, as if it had been burned over.Robins, catbirds, and shrikes, and sev-eral others, like to eat cutworms, whichdestroy grass and other plants. As manyas three hundred of them have been foundin the stomach of a robin, of course forone meal. Ants are very troublesome inmany ways, and three thousand of themhave been taken from the stomach of oneflicker. Why kill these birds that are so usefulto us and so beautify nature ? Many oth-ers are just as useful and some that occa-sionally do damage amply repay us inother ways.
Text Appearing After Image:
83 THE CALICO BASS. The Calico Bass (Pomoxys sparoides)is so called because of the mottled andvariegated coloring of the body and fins.It is also called the Strawberry Bass, theGrass Bass, the Bitter Head, the Lamp-lighter and the Barfish. It is abundant in all the lakes andponds of the region of the Great Lakesand the upper Mississippi river, where itshows a preference for quiet, cool andclear water and grass covered bottoms. The Calico Bass is closely related tothe Crappie (Pomoxys annularis) of thelower Mississippi valley. It is, however,seldom seen where the Crappie is abun-dant, as the latter prefers muddy sloughsand bayous and is not found as far northas the former. The body of the Calico Bass is elonga-ted, is much compressed and of a bright,silvery olive-green color. The sides andfins are mottled with a darker green or brownish-green, the blotches being gath-ered into irregular bunches. The verti-cal fins also have markings in the formof a network surrounding paler spots.The m

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