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Updated: June 12, 2025
It is September the month of restlessness for the birds. Weeks ago the first migrants started on their southward journey, the more delicate insect-eaters going first, before the goldfinches and other late nesters had half finished housekeeping.
There are a dozen species of them in all; and they possess the peculiarity of being insect-eaters. They are fond of honey, too; and are often seen ranging the woods, in little troops of ten or twelve, in search of the nests of the wild bees, which they plunder of their luscious stores. The Ouistitis also constitute a genus.
"What have you on your mind, Peter?" she asked. "Didn't you tell us that the Shrew family and the Mole family are the only families in this country in the order of insect-eaters?" asked Peter. "I certainly did," was the prompt reply. "Doesn't Flitter the Bat live on insects?" asked Peter. Old Mother Nature nodded. "He does," said she. "In fact he lives altogether on insects."
Their nocturnal habits and our consequent ignorance of their characteristics are the only causes which can account for their being associated with the realm of Satan. In some places bats are called flittermice, but they are more nearly related to moles, shrews, and other insect-eaters than they are to mice.
Some have asserted that it spits the spiders and other insects for the purpose of attracting nearer the small birds upon which it preys; but this cannot be true, for it preys mostly upon birds that are not insect-eaters, as the finches: besides, it is itself as fond of eating grasshoppers as anything else, and consumes large quantities of these insects.
Even as late as November, when the water begins to freeze in the tiny cups of the pitcher plants, and the frost brings into being a new kind of foliage on glass and stone, a few insect-eaters of the summer woods still linger on.
"But the Kingbird is not quarrelsome simply very lively; he is the very picture of dash and daring in defending his home, and when he is teaching his youngsters how to fly. "Like other insect-eaters, he leaves the northerly States before cold weather and journeys beyond the United States for the winter.
Of course there are many species of bats in South America besides the vampire; in fact, there is no class of mammalia more numerous in genera and species, and no part of the world where greater numbers are found than in the tropical regions of America. Some are insect-eaters, while others live entirely on vegetable substances; but all have the same unsightly and repulsive appearance.
Blackness is so common in large protected insects, as, for instance, in the un-palatable leaf-cutting ants, scorpions, mygale spiders, wasps, and other dangerous kinds, that it is manifestly a "warning colour," the most universal and best known in nature; and the grasshopper, I believe, furthermore mimics the fearless demeanour of the protected or venomous species, which birds and other insect-eaters know and respect.
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