Identifier: cu31924022533263 (find matches)
Title: Bird portraits
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946 Hoffmann, Ralph, b. 1870
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Boston, Ginn & Company
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ident that it wedges its victims intoforked twigs or impales them on thorns, so that it can then tear offportions to devour. But why it so often leaves them uneaten (thepractice of thus displaying its wares has earned the bird its name)has never been satisfactorily explained. Perhaps the bird means toreturn to them in times of scarcity, but they are so often left uneatenthat it seems probable that it has formed the habit of hunting andhanging up its game, often with no thought of eating it. The Butcher Bird has often been persecuted for the destructionof smaller birds; it seems far wiser to protect it, not only in orderto preserve so interesting a bird, but because birds form so small aper cent of its food. In the spring and fall, it lives very largelyon insects, and throughout the winter, mice form a large part of itsdiet. There is always danger of blundering when man interferes inthe concerns of nature, and if he once exterminates any creature, itis beyond his power to re-create it.
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TH2 GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET AND BROWN CREEPER THE GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET The Golden-crowned Kinglet is, next to the Humming-bird,almost our smallest bird, and it frequents thick evergreens so con-tinually that it is rarely seen. There is little in its voice and habitsto attract. attention, and its activity and restlessness are so constantthat we rarely catch sight of the bit of color which it possesses,—the crown which the little king carries. But if we train our earso that it catches every fine natural sound, no matter how trifling,we become aware some crisp winter day of a thin see, see, see, oftenrepeated from some hedge, or group of orchard trees. If we watch,our eye will catch sight of one or two tiny creatures, flitting restlesslyamong the twigs, keeping their wings in almost constant motion,even when not actually flying. The general color of the bird is ashade known in the books as olivaceous, but the effect outdoors andat a distance is a dark gray; across the wings there are

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