I 



30 



INTRODUCTION. 



for timely riddance by unnumbered birds, would be followed by a 

 general failure and famine. Public economy and utility, then, 

 no less than humanity, plead for the protection of the feathered 

 race ; and the wanton destruction of birds, so useful, beautiful, and 

 amusing, if not treated as such by law, ought to be considered as a 

 crime by every moral, feeling, and reflecting mind. 



Nest of the Tailor-Bird. 



