He was growing more wild and more unwilling to return to his cage, and I intended to let him go when spring came, but long before that time he got sickly and sluggish, eager for the berries and insects that were not to be found, and in spite of everything I tried in their stead, he died late in December.
But though Oliver Twist lived so short a time he taught me many interesting lessons, one of which, in particular, I shall long remember: never try to keep a fruit- and insect-eating bird through the winter, for no amount of willingness and care can supply him with proper food. Take nature's word for it—she knows quite well what she is about when she sends them all off to the south.
Birds and Caterpillars
Last year, at Brandon, Vermont, the tent-caterpillars were so abundant as to be a serious injury and annoyance. They lay in close rows, making wide bands on the tree trunks. They spun down from the upper branches and fell upon the unfortunate passers-by. They crawled through the grass in such numbers that it seemed to move in a mass as one looked down upon it. Under these circumstances, birds might be expected to do strange things,—and they did.
The pair of Downy Woodpeckers which lived near us were frequently seen on the ground picking up the crawling tent-caterpillars. They seemed to prefer taking them from the ground to taking them from the trees, though there were more on the tree-trunks than on the ground even. And the Woodpeckers seemed to have no difficulty in moving on the ground, though they moved more slowly than when dodging around a tree.