150 BRITISH BIRDS. 



result was, the grakles were thinned, but the insects 

 were vastly increased, and the trouble they occasioned 

 was proportionate. So fearfully was the grass damaged, 

 that the colonists had to procure hay from Pennsylvania, 

 and even from England. 



At this crisis, grakles were brought from India to the 

 Isle of Bourbon to destroy the grasshoppers ; but when 

 these birds were observed in the fields, it was supposed 

 they were searching for the newly-sown grain ; again, 

 therefore were they proscribed, and soon not a single 

 grakle remained. Again the insects increased ; the mis- 

 taken islanders began to mourn over the loss of the 

 birds, and about eight years after the governor obtain- 

 ed four of them from India, and arrangements were 

 made for their being preserved. To protect them laws 

 were made, and to check any disposition to eat them, a 

 report was circulated that they were very unwholesome 

 food. We, as certainly, owe much to the swallows. 



But the window swallow is yet to be noticed. It is 

 rather less in size than the one last mentioned. It first 

 makes its appearance in low, warm situations, and, if the 

 weather is fine, begins building early in May. The 

 nest is generally placed under the eave of a house, 

 sometimes against rocks and clifi"s contiguous to the sea. 

 How truly may we say — 



