UTILITY OF BIRDS. 189 
species whose rudimentary wings do not permit of their wandering 
away. Whatever the cause, however, the species found there are 
not obtained elsewhere. ‘There we find the unique Dodo, a form of 
animal which became extinct in the last century. 
There is a wonderful charm of companionship in birds—they 
give animation to the scene, skipping from bush to bush, or 
skimming the surface of land and water. ‘They please the eye 
by their graceful shape and plumage, and they charm our ears 
by their ceaseless warblings. Even for this we he under a debt of 
gratitude to these graceful inhabitants of the air. But this is far 
from being the limit of the benefits we derive from them. The 
birds of the poultry-yards furnish our most delicate food ; their eggs 
form a considerable branch of trade, and are indispensable in the 
kitchen ; and what would become of the country should our birds 
ever become extinct?—an event by no means improbable, seeing 
that in the year of grace 1868 the head-dress of every votary of 
fashion was decorated with the wing of a bird, not confining the 
demand to Birds of Paradise and Ostriches, but using whatever 
varieties were obtainable ; but now, thank goodness, the law protects 
even the harmless sea-fowl, which were destroyed by thousands only 
for the sake of their wings. 
Birds are useful to man by destroying insects, larvze, and cater- 
pillars which infest cultivated crops. Without their aid agriculture 
would become impossible. In former times it was a favourite 
doctrine with the agriculturist that the Passerina were the real 
destroyers of his crops, and a war of extermination was declared 
against them; but the observations of more enlightened persons 
have demonstrated that the chief food of most of these consists of 
insects, and the havoc among them has consequently been stayed ; 
still much ignorance, and its concomitant, cruelty, exist on this 
point. Elsewhere, those interested soon discovered that the de- 
struction of small birds led to formidable increase in the numbers 
of voracious insects—that these lively and joyous creatures, which 
float in the air and twitter on the bough, are sent us more for good 
than evil, and that if some of them make the crops pay a tax, they 
repay it tenfold by keeping down the excess of more destructive 
ravagers. 
While the smaller birds have proved essentially beneficial to man, 
some of the larger birds exhibit similar tendencies. The Wading 
Bird clears the earth of serpents and other unclean and venomous 
animals. The Vultures and Storks consume corrupt carrion and 
divest the soil of all putrefying objects; thus, in concert with insects, 
