

THE BIRD 



AS THE LABOURER OF MAN 



The " miserly agriculturist," is the accurate and 

 kf,;^ forcible expression of Virgil. Miserly, and blind, in 

 truth, for he proscribes the birds which destroy in- 

 sects and protect his crops. 



Not a grain will he spare to the bird which, during 



; ) ^S' ^^ ^^le winter rains, hunted up the future insect, sought 

 ' out the nests of the larvte, examined them, turned over 

 evciy leaf, and daily destroyed myriads of fature cater- 

 pillars ; but sacks of corn to the adult insects, and whole 

 fields to the gi'asshoppers which the bird would have 

 combated ! 



"With his eyes fixed on the fuiTOw, on the present 

 moment, without sight or foresight; deaf to the gi-and 

 haiinony which no one ever interrupts with impunity, 

 he has everywhere solicited or approved the laws which suppressed the 

 much-needed assistant of his labour, the insect-destroying bird. And 



