Zöology; a textbook for colleges and universities . rren says: Like all their family, theyare great hands to carry away and hidefood, and when fed a bird will usually eat amouthful or two, take all it can hold in itsbill, and fly off with it, presently returningto repeat the performance. It is interest-ing to note that a group of birds is charac-terized by its habits and psychology, aswell as by the structural characters usedfor classification. 394 ZOOLOGY ferent from the original robin redbreast ofEngland. The bluebird is typically American,and is unknown in Europe. It is scarcely possible to
Zöology; a textbook for colleges and universities . rren says: Like all their family, theyare great hands to carry away and hidefood, and when fed a bird will usually eat amouthful or two, take all it can hold in itsbill, and fly off with it, presently returningto repeat the performance. It is interest-ing to note that a group of birds is charac-terized by its habits and psychology, aswell as by the structural characters usedfor classification. 394 ZOOLOGY ferent from the original robin redbreast ofEngland. The bluebird is typically American,and is unknown in Europe. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the importance ofbirds for mankind. Aside from the value of their bodiesas food and their feathers as ornament, they serve asthe constant guardians of our crops. While an occa-sional hawk may raid the barnyard, and the cherriesmay suffer from the robins, all the damage done bybirds to human interests is insignificant in comparisonwith the benefits conferred. The normal increase ofinjurious insects is sufficient to maintain each kind in. Photograph by E. R. Warren FIG. 167. Western robin (Planestkus migrator ius propinquus), MonumentValley Park, Colorado Springs, Colorado. This bird belongs to the thrushfamily, Turdidae, and is very different from the true robin of England. It goessouthward in the winter, returning early in the spring, though in Colorado a fewbirds remain throughout the year. Note the long bill, well adapted to the captureof cutworms in the soil. In Colorado it has seemed to us that the cutworms wereworst when the ground was long covered by snow in spring, and we have thoughtthat this might be largely due to the protection they thus gained from the robins. BIRDS 395
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1920
