“Mary Frances!” exclaimed Billy. “How ridiculous! You don’t seem to understand that that old rooster would have eaten up all the young plants himself!”
Mary Frances bit her lip to keep from laughing as she saw Feather Flop peeping around the tree in back of Billy.
“If that rooster were a robin or a wren it would be different,” went on Billy. “Just listen, Mary Frances!” pulling a paper out of his pocket.
“‘One robin has been known to feed his family five yards of worms a day.
“‘A chicka-dee will dispose of 5500 eggs of the canker-worm moth in one day.
“‘A flicker eats no less than 9000 ants a day.
“‘A pair of wrens have been seen to carry 100 insects to their young in an hour. They are especially fond of plant lice and cutworms.
“‘Little humming birds lick plant lice off foliage with lightning rapidity.