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Wings used as flippers for swimming.

Crow.—That he does pull up sprouting corn, destroy chickens, and rob the nests of small birds has been repeatedly proved. Nor are these all of his sins. He is known to eat frogs, toads, salamanders, and some small snakes, all harmless creatures that do some good by eating insects. Experience has shown that they may be prevented from pulling up young corn by tarring the seed, which not only saves the corn but forces them to turn their attention to insects. May beetles, "dor-*bugs," or June bugs, and others of the same family constitute the principal food during spring and early summer, and are fed to the young in immense quantities.

Ricebird.—The annual loss to rice growers on account of bobolinks has been estimated at $2,000,000.

Meadow Lark.—Next to grasshoppers, beetles make up the most important item of the meadow lark's food, amounting to nearly 21 per cent. May is the month when the dreaded cut-worm begins its deadly career, and then the lark does some of its best work. Most of these caterpillars are ground feeders, and are overlooked by birds which habitually frequent trees, but the meadow lark finds and devours them by thousands.

—Umbrella holding the nests of social weaver bird of Africa; polygamous.

Sparrows.—Examination of many stomachs shows that in winter the tree sparrow feeds entirely upon seeds of weeds. Probably each bird consumes about one fourth of an ounce a day. Farther south the tree sparrow is replaced in winter by the white-throated sparrow, the white-crowned sparrow, the fox sparrow, the song sparrow, the field sparrow, and several others; so that all over the land a vast number of these seed eaters are at