144 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
stroyed by a host of new enemies of the insect 
world, the species of which he has never before seen, 
and against which, in consequence, he knows not 
how to proceed. He is, in fact, thrown upon his 
own resources; and if he has not a sufficient know- 
ledge of natural history to enable him to reason 
upon the facts before him, or to direct him how to 
proceed, he suffers the full extent of evils which 
might otherwise have been mitigated or prevented. 
(87.) How continually are the nurserymen and 
gardeners of this country complaining of extensive 
' damage done to their crops and their fruit-trees by 
different species of insects! Yet these very insects. 
from being called by vulgar provincial names, are 
almost totally unknown to naturalists, who cannot, 
therefore, supply that information which is desired 
It is surely not too much to expect that a gardener 
should be able to tell the difference between a beetle 
and a fly; between an insect with four wings, and 
one without. Yet so little has this information 
been thought of among the generality of this pro- 
fession, that not one in twenty has any knowledge 
on the subject. Country gentlemen complain of 
their fruit being devoured by birds, and orders are 
given for an indiscriminate destruction of birds- 
nests: the sparrows, more especially, are persecuted 
without mercy, as being the chief aggressors ; while 
the Robin redbreast, conceived to be the most inno- 
cent inhabitant of the garden, is fostered and pro- 
tected. Now, a little acquaintance with the naturai 
history of these two birds would set their characters 
in opposite lights. The sparrows, more especially 
