TAKE CARE OF THE BIRDS! 689 



rarely all that is left to guard men against being fully estranged 

 from Nature. 



But in consideration of the fact that in the materialistic tend- 

 encies of our day to turn away from all purely idealistic points 

 of view, and notwithstanding what has been said above, since 

 the main argument for the protection of birds lies in their impor- 

 tance and indispensability for Nature's household and for human 

 welfare, I will also take their actual usefulness into considera- 

 tion. We dismiss those excessive exaggerations by which each 

 and every bird is represented as necessary. They have done more 

 harm than good to the cause by the sharp and sometimes angry 

 contradictions they have provoked. To designate all birds accord- 

 ing to their usefulness or the harm they do would be hopeless ; for 

 each bird, even the most useful, may under some circumstances 

 do much harm ; so that the useful or injurious character of single 

 species may be exceedingly variable under different local condi- 

 tions. I may be allowed to adduce a few examples of this. 



The sparrow has been of late years one of the most noxious of 

 all birds ; and is capable, in fact, in districts under high cultiva- 

 tion, alighting in hosts on fields of ripening grain, or in orchards, 

 of doing great harm. Nobody can, on the other hand, deny that 

 it eats naked caterpillars, worms, and similar vermin ; and who- 

 ever will can without difficulty satisfy himself that it eagerly 

 catches grub-worms in the spring. The complete extirpation of 

 the sparrow, which is .recklessly and improvidently demanded in 

 many quarters to-day, would be a serious wrong and great folly, 

 because it is in many places the single bird destructive to vermin, 

 and the latter would without it increase much faster and become 

 more predominant than hitherto. A similar view may be taken 

 of the bull-finch, whose beauty every one enjoys wherever it shows 

 itself ; but it is one of the class which men would banish, for it 

 has in many places developed great power for mischief. It eats 

 the flower-buds from the fruit trees, especially from the pear 

 trees, and thus does great harm. And it is fortunate that in many 

 parts of Germany its young are stolen from the nests by hundreds, 

 domesticated and trained to be singers, and have become an arti- 

 cle of trade. Blackbirds and starlings have likewise come to be 

 regarded as obnoxious by narrow-hearted gardeners who look at 

 everything through the spectacles of their own interest. In other 

 respects these birds are among the most useful we have. If we 

 were to estimate the usefulness or objectionableness of all birds, 

 giving heed to the prejudices of every one whose special inter- 

 est they might in some way damage, we should have to put the 

 ban upon nearly all, and have hardly a species exempt from 

 sentence. 



Instead of this, we prefer to apply the measures by which we 



VOL. XXXIX. 50 



