. The American natural history : a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America . Natural history. 180 ORDERS OF BIRDS—PERCHERS AND SINGERS Scapulars Secondaries ..Ztsser .Jtfiddle I THE PARTS AND PLUMAGE OP A PERCHING-BIRD. we, then, be so utterly barbarous and mean as to engage in, or permit, the killing of our song- birds in order that they be used either as food for biped pigs, or to adorn(?) the cheap millinery of servant-girls? Never! Let it not be thought, however, that the Order Passeres has not a good share of birds of beauti- ful plumage
. The American natural history : a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America . Natural history. 180 ORDERS OF BIRDS—PERCHERS AND SINGERS Scapulars Secondaries ..Ztsser .Jtfiddle I THE PARTS AND PLUMAGE OP A PERCHING-BIRD. we, then, be so utterly barbarous and mean as to engage in, or permit, the killing of our song- birds in order that they be used either as food for biped pigs, or to adorn(?) the cheap millinery of servant-girls? Never! Let it not be thought, however, that the Order Passeres has not a good share of birds of beauti- ful plumage. In our own fields and forests, be- hold the waxwing, the oriole, the cardinal, the tanager, the grosbeak, the magpie, the jay and the bobolink. The tropics contain the wonder- ful birds of paradise, and a bewildering array of humming-birds, cotingas,finches,ground-thrushes and many others. If the temperate zone lacks anything in perch- ing-birds of brilliant plumage, that lack is more than made up by the singing-birds. With all its wealth of bird-life, brilliant and plain, the tropics are generally silent, and a joyous or musical bird- song is rarely heard. Of the bird-cries that one occasionally hears, the majority are harsh and unpleasant squawks. The tropical day has neither robin nor mocking-bird, the night no whippoorwill. True, there is the awful "brain- fever " bird of the Indian night, but it is neither musical nor joyous. One may spend months in the tropics, both of America and of the Far East, and in all that time hear less of real bird- song than can be heard on many an American farm in one day. As might be expected in a large Order of birds, the food habits of the perchers cover a wide variety of foods. The great majority prefer to live upon insects, and the young of all species are absolutely dependent upon soft-bodied in- sects, larvae and earth-worms. Many birds are really limited to insect-food, and can sub- sist on no other kind. Next in importanc
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