The " miserly agriculturist," is the accurate and 

 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 

 the winter rains, hunted up the future insect, sought 

 out the nests of the larvae, examined them, turned over 

 rery leaf, and daily destroyed myi-iads of fature cater- 

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

 fields to the grasshoppers which the bird would have 

 combated 1 



With his eyes fixed on the fuiTOw, on the present 

 moment, without sight or foresight; deaf to the grand 

 harmony 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 



