TESTIMONY FOR THE BIRDS. 239 



years. There has ever been a harmony between my birds 

 and me." He protected all the birds that frequented his 

 grounds, and they devoured the- insects that infested 

 them. Grasshoppers, he said, in the early stage of their 

 existence are not bigger than flies. Ten or twelve birds 

 would clear a whole field of them before they could do 

 any injury to the grass-crop. 



Small owls are useful as destroyers of the larger moths 

 and nocturnal insects, and they are excellent mousers. 

 Hon. Eichard Peters, in " The Memoirs of the Philadel- 

 phia Society for Promoting Agriculture," says that all 

 owls are destroyers of mice. A pine-tree near his house 

 afforded a resort to about a dozen of these birds during 

 the winter. From witnessing their operations, he con- 

 cluded that a few of them, if harbored near, would clear 

 the fields, bams, and out-houses of vermin. He says it 

 is only the larger species that will attack poultry or do 

 any other damage. 



The inhabitants of a new country, like America, are not 

 so well informed of the evils that follow the destruction 

 of birds as those of old countries, who have learned from 

 the experience of many generations the indispensable 

 character of their services. Vincent Kollar says, if we 

 would prevent the increase of the cockchafer, we must 

 spare the birds that feed upon its larva. Among these 

 he thinks the crow deserves the first place. The bird 

 follows the plough to obtain the larva of this and other 

 insects as they are turned out by the furrows. In gar- 

 dens he walks among the plants, and wherever one has 

 begun to wither he plunges his bill into the ground and 

 draws out the grub. Crows do the same in the meadows, 

 which are sometimes nearly covered with them. The 

 American crow has the same habits ; but he does not fol- 

 low the plough, from his fear of the farmer's gun. Our 

 people will not believe that the crow does anything but 



