NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



island and the people were frantic with fear lest they 

 should perish. It was indeed fortunate for those 

 foolish people the martin was not quite beyond recall. 

 Every encouragement was given these birds, and 

 swift fell the punishment on anyone who persecuted 

 them. The martins, finding an abundant food supply, 

 increased rapidly in numbers, and the devastating 

 hordes of grasshoppers were destroyed. 



In the year i 8 6 1 the harvests of France were very 

 poor, and the Minister for Agriculture appointed a 

 Commission to investigate the cause of this alarming 

 diminution in the crops throughout the country. 

 The Commission attributed the unusually poor return 

 to the ravages of insects. It seems the birds which 

 had been keeping the insects in check had been shot, 

 snared, and trapped in such numbers that the survivors 

 were unable to maintain the balance of Nature, and the 

 insects multiplied and overspread the land to scourge 

 man for his ignorance and folly. 



This Commission reported that they could suggest 

 no other remedy against the ravages of insects than 

 prompt and energetic legislation to prevent the 

 destruction of birds. 



For some years prior to 1877 the farmers of 

 Nebraska were in the habit of poisoning the black- 

 birds during the spring and autumn around the 

 cornfields, because they believed this bird was damag- 

 ing the crops, particularly the wheat. Large numbers 

 of prairie chicken, quail, plover, and various other 

 species of eminently useful birds were destroyed at 

 the same time by eating the poisoned grain. Again 



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