fine salt distributes with less working, and dissolves and salts more evenly than coarse salt does. "The butter properly salted, he forms it into neat rolls and puts them on plates in a cool place ready for use, or ready for the market." LESSON XIII. THE FARMER'S FRIENDS — DO YOU KNOW US? I. I (a) “I am small but I am master of many birds that are larger than I. I build a nest of sticks, and line it with wool or lint, and prefer to build in the hollow of a rail or a post, or under a porch near a house. am gray-brown in color. I destroy many insects in the course of a year. The last letter in my name is the first letter in the word 'name.' Guess my name." (b) "How I am feared by the feathered tribe! A beak with a sharp hook at the end, a pair of sharp claws and strong wings, makes me the easy master of most birds. With a shrill cry I terrify them, or with my swift flight I overtake them. Kindness has never been charged against me; but I destroy mice, and sometimes kill a snake, and hence claim credit for doing some good. Farmers seem to have a grudge against me. I have many brothers, sisters, and cousins, and we all bear marked resemblances to one an other in appearance and habits. Can you spell my name from leading letters in what I have told you?" (c) "I am a large bird and live in the streets of southern cities. I eat decaying fruit and other impurities that are thrown into the streets. I am kindly treated because I am a scavenger. Do know me? Do you know my relatives?" you (d) "My feet are webbed, but that makes me able to swim; my bill is flat, but that makes me able to get the food I like best; when I walk, I jerk my head in a queer way, but that helps me to keep my balance; I am prized most for what I carry on my back. My song is quack, quack, quack." (e) "Just as blue is the coat I wear, As any soldier's in the land; In tones of loud and sharp command. "My beak is like a bayonet, And fear I never felt or knew; And often when a foe I've met, I've shown him how my soldiers do. (f) "If Jimmy' Crow comes near my nest, And peck and scratch him on the back. "You'll know my name if you are wise, "Poor me! Poor me! I am not a bird, I am not a bee; "My teeth are so small and frail that I can eat nothing but worms and bugs and an occasional tender root or bulb. It is reported that I was once buried alive because I was found rooting in a lady's garden in my search for worms. Poor me! "I work for days and even weeks to find the worms in a patch of grass land, a garden, or a field; and when some of the grass dies because the worms have eaten the roots; or when some of the plants wither and die because their roots were cut by the worms I found and killed, the farmer often hunts me with his dog, and then I have to go deep down into the ground in order to escape. "Poor me! Poor me!" 2. NOTES. 1. Many birds feed almost entirely upon insects. Birds that are ground-feeders eat such insects as they find in the grass and among the leaves, or such as they find by scratching in the earth. A flycatcher usually catches its prey while on the wing; other birds take worms and bugs from the leaves of growing plants; others locate and destroy worms that work beneath the bark. Chickens, turkeys, and ducks are examples of ground-feeders. Many wild birds feed either entirely or in part upon the ground. The kingbird is a flycatcher; the robin takes worms from the leaves of plants; the woodpecker takes worms from beneath the bark. 2. Birds that by some people are thought to be harmful are often wrongfully accused. For example a bee raiser once suspected that the kingbirds, often called bee-martins, were killing his bees. He shot a number of these birds and had the contents of their stomachs examined, but not a trace of honeybees could be found. 3. For many years the government has employed and paid men to determine the kind of food. |