206 INTEODUCTOEY CHAPTER. 



value was a protection, but extending to the harmless sea-fowl, 

 which were destroyed by thousands only for the sake of their 

 feathers. 



Birds are useful to man by their feeding on the insects, larvae, 

 and caterpillars 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 destruction 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 Yultures and Storks throw them- 

 selves in flocks on corrupt carrion, and divest the soil of all 

 putrefying objects: thus, in concert with insects, birds are the 

 scavengers of the earth, lending their aid to make it a fit residence 

 for man ; in fact, are constituted by nature guardians of the public 

 health. 



In former days Falconry afibrded a stately and picturesque 

 sport to the great, in which lords and noble dames assisted. This 

 pastime still exists in some parts of England and some portions of 

 the East, especially in Persia, where the Falcon is trained to 

 chase the Gazelle and small ruminants ; while in China and Japan 

 the Cormorant and Pelican are taught to fish the rivers for their 

 masters. From very ancient times, the Carrier Pigeon was the 

 bearer of messages now transmitted along the electric wires with 

 lightning speed. 



Nor do these benefits comprise all the claims of birds to the 



