eaters. In fact only four per
cent. of a robin's food is cultivated and a little less than half of it
is wild fruit not prized by man. The remaining half consists of
caterpillars, beetles, spiders, snails and earth-worms.

The cat-bird is also known as a cherry-eater and he frequently helps
himself from strawberry and raspberry patches. He eats a larger
proportion of cultivated fruit than the robin, but about twice as much
wild fruit, including the sumac and poison ivy. The cat-bird eats many
injurious insects, which constitute only a little less than half of his
food.

The cedar-bird is sometimes called the cherry bird, and is accused of
being a great cherry-stealer, but an examination of stomachs showed that
only nine birds out of one hundred and fifty-two had eaten any cherries
and that cherries formed only five per cent. of the food of these few.
There is even evidence that this bird prefers wild fruits, which form
its principal food though it eats a few insects.

The crows and blackbirds are accused of many bad habits, such as pulling
up young corn, destroying large quantities of grain and injuring much
fruit by pecking holes in it which are later entered by insects. Crows
eat fruit to some extent, but the greater part of it is wild. Both crows
and blackbirds are accused of robbing the nests of other birds.
Blackbirds are injurious chiefly because they gather in such large
flocks that when they descend on a field they can eat a large amount of
grain in a short space of time. The greatest good accomplished by the
blackbird is in the spring when it follows the plow in search of
grub-worms, of which it is extremely fond. It also does much good in
destroying insects in the early summer, the young birds being fed almost
entirely on insect food until they are grown.

Of the crow, Doctor Merriam, who is at the head of this branch of work
in the Department of Agriculture, says, "Instead of being an enemy of
the farmer, as is generally believed, the crow is one of his best
friends and the protector of his crops. True, during corn-planting time,
the crow's bill is turned against the farmer during one month, and one
month only is he his enemy. But during the other eleven months the crow
is really working overtime for him. It eats thousands upon thousands of
destructive insects and bugs every week, and when it comes to feeding
its young, gives them a diet composed almost entirely of worms and
insects that prey upon the cr