FEBRUARY. 37 



OUR GARDEN: 

 BIRDS. INSECTS, &c.; THE DAISY, AXD ITS ERADICATION. 



Kind Readers, — The thought has sometimes crossed my mind, as it 

 has perhaps the minds of others, how far man is justified in destroying 

 many of the birds, insects, creeping things, and the Hke, which he 

 looks upon, sometimes with, more frequently we may fear without, 

 reason, as plagues ; how far, in short, man, as a creature, is doing 

 what he ought to do in destroying the life of creatures. 



The slaughter of animals and birds /br/oorf may be looked upon 

 as necessaiy, and therefore blameless ; but even to this it seems to 

 me that there should be some limit. 



I will put an instance : when a number of persons of good edu- 

 cation, and frequently of high position in the world, meet in some 

 well-stocked preserves of game, and at the end of w^hat is called a day 

 oi sport, the slaughtered pheasants and hares are counted, not by 

 tens, but by hundreds, is this necessary ? Can it be right ? Can a 

 merciful Creator look upon this wholesale destruction of His crea- 

 tures with approval } I leave others to answer the question for 

 themselves ; but my own heart tells me that such a destruction of 

 life, mainly for the sake of sport, can no more be justified than the 

 bull-fights of the Peninsula. 



I now come to what are called the gardeners' J9e5^5, birds, insects, 

 creeping things, &c. There can be no doubt but that all these were 

 created for some wise end ; nothing has been made in vain, of this 

 we may rest assured. Some over-busy people have learnt this by 

 experience. Those who have endeavoured to destroy rooks, chaf- 

 finches, sparrows, &c., have often found to their cost that God had 

 given these birds a necessary work to do ; and that when they have 

 not been permitted to perform their appointed duty, evil has come of 

 it in the shape of unchecked myriads of grubs and the like. For my 

 part, I cannot believe that one of the birds which frequent our fields 

 and gardens ought to be destroyed ; I would frighten them away 

 by all means when they are particularly troublesome, and keep them 

 oflf with nets, &c. ; but I should at other times leave them unmolested 

 to perform their appointed work. 



Insects doubtless have their uses, though, I must confess, I have 

 greater diflSculty in discovering what they are ; still I would say, Do 

 not destroy more than are absolutely necessary. I feel sure, if we do 

 destroy these living armies, some other pests will rise up in increased 

 numbers, and bring unlooked-for destruction in their train. 



Again, as regards creeping things ; I cannot say much in behalf 

 of slugs and snails, yet I never have them destroyed in large quanti- 

 ties without a qualm of conscience ; surely they must be the destroyers 

 of something else which needs destroying ; and if they multiply upon 

 us in an unusual manner, may not this circumstance suggest to us the 



