INSECT-EATING BIRDS. 



195 



she produces no more of one species than shall be kept in 

 check by another. If there is an insect which feeds upon a 

 certain plant, there is also a bird 

 which destroys the insect and an 

 animal which devours the bird ; and -^^ 

 so on up the scale, each curbing the ^j 

 undue increase of the next inferior 

 creature. It is when man inter- 

 feres with the working of this law 

 that results are sure to follow dis- 

 astrous alike to his own food, health 

 and happiness and that of the crea- 

 tures around him. It is because he 

 has destroyed their natural ene- 

 mies that insects have become a 

 pest, and they will cease to trouble 



, . , . . . 1 1 n Fig- 2. — Mottled or Screech Owl. Scops- 



mm only in proportion as he shall asto. (Raptores.) 



restore the balance of which nature shows the necessity. It 

 is not that insects are to be destroyed or condemned as a 

 class. Nothing is created except for the fulfilment of some 

 good end, and the value of insects is not inferior to that of 

 any other class of animal life ; none are without their legiti- 

 mate uses, and it is only when they are stimulated to excessive 



increase that they become trouble- 

 some. Before passing judgment upon 

 them we must remember that insects 



Fig. 3. — Hawk-owl. Surnia ulula, 

 (Raptores.) 



Fig 4. — Black-liilled Cuckoo. C. erythroph- 

 thalmus. (Scansores.) 



fabricate the beautiful coral which is so useful and valuable 

 to man. Of similar origin, too, is silk, which, in its manufact- 

 ure, furnishes profitable employment to multitudes of men, 



