4 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
with themselves. And thus man, by the one fact of 
his civilisation, launches himself upon an endless 
combat with one division of animated nature, and 
an equally endless coalition with the other, every 
species existing upon the earth being in some manner 
and degree linked to that first small band, the mem- 
bers of which are either directly injurious or directly 
beneficial to the interests of the human race. 
But it must be borne in mind—and to this point I 
wish to direct particular attention—that there is a 
great and most important difference between the two 
groups of beings, the friendly and the unfriendly. 
And this, briefly stated, is as follows :— 
The ravages of the latter, which injure his crops, 
which decimate his herds, which reduce to a mere 
mass of crumbling dust the mightiest works of his 
hands, are at once visible and appreciable ; both the 
effect and its cause lhe unmistakably before him. 
The good services of the former, on the contrary, 
are in almost every case concealed from his view. 
And consequently is manifested a tendency, mis- 
chievous enough in its results, to attach undue weight 
to the doings of the one, and at the same time to pass 
by unnoticed, in greater or less degree, the equally 
important labours of the other. 
When the locust arrives in its numberless hordes, 
and leaves the land over which it has passed, in 
Scriptural phrase, ‘‘a desolate wilderness,” we see 
the destroyer, and we realise its power. When the 
terrible tsetse kills off the team of the African 
traveller, and leaves him dependent upon his own 
