TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 241 



" In Hungary, and in the Grand Duchy of Baden, 

 the destruction of birds produced similar results.* 



" Even in Normandy, at Montville, in the depart- 

 ment of the Seine Infe'rieure the idea of destroying 

 the crows was adopted, and it was found by experi- 

 ence that their ravages were not to be compared 

 with the evils they prevented, and the crow was 

 rehabilitated, t 



" A last instance. In the middle of Paris, in the Rue 

 Vivienne, there was one day discovered round a nest 

 of sparrows one thousand four hundred wings of cock- 

 chafers. So that at the very least seven hundred 

 chafers, each one an enemy, were destroyed for a 

 single brood. 



" To the aid of these kinds, whose services we, on 

 the whole, pay for pretty cheaply, come some powerful 

 assistants whom we are not required to pay at all, and 

 whom therefore we ought at all times and in all places 

 to protect. In the realm of nature there exists only 

 one serious enemy of the insect, only one capable of 

 efficiently opposing its ravages. This is the bird an 

 implacable enemy, pursuing the insect at all times and 

 in all its stages. Each insectivorous bird has, too, its 

 speciality. The woodpeckers and the climbers, guided 

 by some mysterious instinct or unknown signs, seek 



* Baron Dumast, quoted in " Bulletin de la Societe d'Acclimatation de 

 Nancy," 1857, pp. 10, 11. 



t Address read to the Senate, 24th June, 1861, by President Bon jean, on 

 the preservation of birds. 



