GAME AND ITS PROTECTION. 143 



ful never to invade the high grass or the ripening 

 grain so also, from his innate love of nature, and of 

 everything that makes nature more beautiful, he 

 spares and defends the warblers of the woods and the 

 innocent worm-devourers that stand guardian over the 

 trees and crops. The smaller birds destroy immense 

 numbers of worms; cedar-birds have been known 

 to eat hundreds of caterpillars, and in this city 

 have cleared the public squares in a morning's visit 

 of the disgusting measuring-worms, that were hang- 

 ing by thousands pendent from the branches. And 

 who has not heard the " woodpecker tapping " all 

 day long in pursuit of his prey ? 



With the barbarous and senseless destruction of 

 our small birds, the ravages of the worms have 

 augmented, until we hear from all the densely-set- 

 tled portions of the country loud complaints of their 

 attacks. Peach-trees perish ; cherries are no longer 

 the beautiful fruit they once were ; apples are dis- 

 figured, and plums have almost ceased to exist. 

 Worms appear upon every vegetable thing; the 

 borers dig their way beneath the bark of the trunk 

 and cut long alleys through the wood ; weevils 

 pierce the grain and eat out its pith ; the leaf-eaters 

 of various sorts punch out the delicate membrane by 

 individual effort; or collecting in bodies, throw 

 their nets, like a spider-web, over the branches, and 

 by combined attacks deliberately devour every leaf. 

 While these species are at work openly and in full 

 sight, others are at the roots digging and destroy- 

 ing and multiplying; until the tree that at first 



