. Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada . amores, and ash-trees. None ofthem are in general favor, however, the larger finches andgrosbeaks being their only patrons. The cone-bearing trees cater to a rather select company ofbirds. This is particularly true of the white pine, the vanedseeds of which are sodeeply hidden betweenthe scales of its greatcones that they cannotbe extracted by ordinarybird tools. There are afew specialists, however,endowed with an appe-tite for such seeds and anadequate apparatus forobtaining them. Theseare t
. Birds in their relations to man; a manual of economic ornithology for the United States and Canada . amores, and ash-trees. None ofthem are in general favor, however, the larger finches andgrosbeaks being their only patrons. The cone-bearing trees cater to a rather select company ofbirds. This is particularly true of the white pine, the vanedseeds of which are sodeeply hidden betweenthe scales of its greatcones that they cannotbe extracted by ordinarybird tools. There are afew specialists, however,endowed with an appe-tite for such seeds and anadequate apparatus forobtaining them. Theseare the cross-bills, whosefalcate mandibles areadmirably adapted forgrasping the vane of a pine seed and thus withdrawing it from its hiding-place. Tin;siskin is another lover of pine seeds, and if is able to supplyits wants by having a bill which for a finch is very long andacute. Although most of the white-pine seeds fall in Sep-tember, enough remain in place to keep the birds supplieduntil early winter. Besides these specialists, several otherbirds occasionally eat pine seeds. Any of the seed eaters. WHITE-WINIiEI) CROSS-BILL. 32 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. finding these strewn upon the ground seem ready to acceptthem, as are also the woodpeckers and the brown creepers,when fortune favors them with stray kernels in famine time. Hemlock cones are so much smaller than those of thewhite pine that the seeds are more accessible, and conse-quently have a somewhat larger following. The siskins andthe cross-bills are very fond of them, and wherever they finda fruitful growth they are likely to remain till the store isspent,—usually about midwinter. After the snow has come,covering the weeds, goldfinches also resort to the the chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers seem tofind it agreeable to sandwich these seeds in with their fare offrozen insects. The spruces have larger and more refractory cones thanthe hemlock, and rank about with the white pine in birdeconomy. T
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