12 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



subsist on the wood and bark of the trees, while concealed 

 beneath their surface, are the natural prey of these birds ; and 

 when they were supposed to be pecking and injuring the trees, 

 they were searching for the larvas that destroyed their timber. 



It is to the researches of the naturalist, whose labors are so 

 often despised by the mass of the comnmnity, that we are 

 indebted for a knowledge of these important facts. He 

 watches the birds in all their movements, and studies the 

 motive of all their operations. He dissects them to ascertain 

 the nature of their food, and he studies the character of the 

 seed or the insect which he finds concealed in their digestive 

 apparatus. He traces the insect from its birth in the shape of 

 a grub, through all its transformations, until it takes wings 

 and soars into the air. He studies its mode of life, learns 

 the nature of its food, and is prepared at last to show the real 

 cause of many phenomena, attributed by ignorant observers 

 to some other agency. Many a man, whom the multitude 

 have supposed to be a mere idle rambler, is in this manner 

 acquiring a species of knowledge that may save a Avhole 

 country from famine. 



It is remarkable that while most birds are nearly omnivor- 

 ous, there are certain tribes that obtain their principal, subsist- 

 ence from insects. Som.e feed on the grubs that infest the 

 trees, others on those which are buried under the earth ; some 

 on the winged insects that swarm in the air, others on the 

 crawling vermin that infest the leaves of plants. Certain 

 tribes of birds may, therefore, be regarded as the natural 

 checks to the over-multiplication of certain tribes of worms 

 and insects. 



In the first place, there is a countless host of minute 

 swarming insects, which, if nature had not provided a check 

 upon their excessive increase, would darken the atmosphere, 

 and render the earth almost uninhabitable by man. Among 

 these may be reckoned the common flies, the wheat-flies, 

 mosquitoes, gnats, breeze-flies, gadflies, and a great many 

 others, which, on account of their minuteness, cannot be 

 taken by the majority of birds. To the over-multiplication 

 of these insects, the various species of swallows are the natu- 



