3i STUDIES OF NATURE. 



capitation tax of twelve heads of that kind of bird, 

 which were employed in the manufadture of falt- 

 petre, for in that country, nothing is fufFered to 

 go to wade. At the end of the fécond, or, at far^ 

 theft, of the third year, it was difcovered that in- 

 feâ:s had devoured their crops, and it was fpeedily 

 found advifable to invite the fparrows from neigh- 

 bouring countries, to re-people the kingdom with 

 them. Thefe birds, it is true, do eat fome grains 

 of corn, when the infeds fail them 3 but thefe laft, 

 among others the weevil, confume the grain by 

 bufhels, nay, by granaries. If, however, it were 

 poffible to extinguifli the whole race of infecfts, it 

 would be the height of imprudence to fet about 

 it; for we fliould deftroy, along with them, moft 

 of the feathered tribes of our plains, which have 

 no other food for their young while in the neft. 



As to the animals which fall upon our corn in 

 the granary, and our woollens in the warehoufe, 

 fuch as rats, mice, mites, moths ; 1 find that the 

 former are ufeful in purifying the earth from hu- 

 man excrement, which conftitutes a confiderable 

 part of their food. Befides, Nature has made Man 

 a prefent of the cat, to clear the interior of his ha- 

 bitation from thofe vermin. She has endowed this 

 animal not only with uncommon agility, and with 

 wonderful patience and fagacity, but alfo with a 

 fpirit of domefticity perfedly adapted to her em- 

 ployment. 



