ZOOLOGY, 



INSECT AND GKAIN EATING BIEDS. 



Tourists in Europe will, if they are but commonly observant, notice 

 one peculiar feature in Continental scenery, and especially in the 

 scenery of France. The landscapes may be beautiful, and diversified 

 by every possible charm, but in one particular respect they will be 

 found almost utterly devoid of life. Eye and ear are struck together 

 by the absence of familiar sights and familiar sounds. There is no 

 chirping in the hedgerows, no twittering among the trees, no congrega- 

 tion of sparrows in the roads or linnets in the fields. It is useless to 

 look about for the rarer species of birds, as even the commonest sorts 

 are absent, and the traveller is perplexed to think what can have be- 

 come of all the little creatures which he is accustomed to associate with 

 rural scenes. The truth is very soon told. The French eat them. 

 They pursue them unremittingly for the sake of their morsels of flesh, 

 and a small bird seen in a garden would be chased as eagerly as a 

 rabbit or a hare. Traps are systematically set for them on every em- 

 inence, and snares on every hedge. There is an idea, too, that birds 

 destroy fruit, and economists will not submit to any such peculation ; 

 but the first is the principal motive, combined, perhaps, with an in- 

 stinctive passion for the chase, which in France admits of little better 

 gratification. 



Little birds, however, are not sent into the world for nothing. 

 Under the mission of Providence they, like all other creatures, contrib- 

 ute their part towards the harmony of creation, and when that con- 

 tribution is intercepted the effects become visible in a derangement of 

 balance. Birds devour insects, worms, and grubs. Where there are 

 no birds, grubs, worms, and insects multiply to a prodigious extent, 

 and where this unnatural multiplication takes place the crops suffer. 

 During the past year (1861), the harvests of France have given an 

 unusually poor return, and this deficiency is attributed in a great de- 

 gree to the ravages of certain insects, which it is the function of cer- 

 tain birds to destroy. The subject has even attracted the attention 

 of the French government, and, at the instance of the minister of 

 agriculture, a commission was appointed to inquire into the matter, 

 and report what legislation is expedient. 



From a preliminary report emanating from this committee, it 

 appears that their inquiries have been conducted with an elaborated 

 accuracy characteristic of French legislation, and that the most experi- 

 enced naturalists in France (M. St. Hilaire, M. Prevost, etc.) have 



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