The Birds’ Calendar» 
aversion to the robin is quite discredited, and 
his general popularity more than ever justified ; 
so that it is no exaggeration to say that this 
most familiar friend of man is in a peculiar 
sense a sort of guardian angel of the soil. 
Less conspicuous than the robin in its utility, 
but of inestimable service throughout all the 
woods, is our little friend, the festive chicka- 
dee, which presents a very practical claim upon 
our admiration in the fact that, from a series of 
careful observations once made at Paris, it has 
been estimated that a single specimen of this 
species, at the lowest computation, destroys 
annually two hundred thousand eggs alone of 
noxious insects. By what a fairy force of labor- 
ers is the imminent destruction of our forests 
stayed. 
286 
