JANUARY. 15 



Though the smaller-winged insects are the principal food 

 of the swallow tribe, some of the larger species, as the com- 

 mon purple martin, devour great quantities of wasps, large 

 beetles, and goldsmiths. It has been estimated that a single 

 purple martin will destroy nearly five thousand moths and 

 butterflies in a week. The moth that does so much mischief 

 in our Avardrobes is a small insect, that might escape the sight 

 of most other birds. A little hive of swallows close by one's 

 dwelling-house would probably be an effectual exterminator 

 of these insects, which would be seized and devoured before 

 they entered our windows. If we take into account the in- 

 numerable caterpillars and grubs that would spring from the 

 eggs of all these different insects, we cannot but regard the 

 martin as one of the most serviceable of all creatures. For- 

 tunately, these birds are not persecuted and destroyed by 

 men and boys like some other tribes, being protected by a 

 superstition that attaches a kind of sacredness to them, and 

 also by their unfitness for the purposes of the fowler. Every 

 man ought to consider it his duty to protect all the species of 

 swallows, by supplying them with houses adapted to their 

 instinct and habits. The lively twittering of these birds is 

 one of the most agreeable accompaniments of the rural melo"- 

 dies of morn, and is associated with many delightful incidents 

 in English poetry. 



Those birds which are particularly serviceable in ridding 

 the earth of the minute crawling insects are the Sylvias, or 

 true warblers, the sparrows, wrens, and smaller fly-catchers. 

 The Sylvias are remarkable for their small size, and for the 

 delicate structure of all their limbs. They are the smallest 

 of birds except the humming birds, and, like the swallows, 

 are found in all parts of the earth. " The groups of this ex- 

 tensive family, (says Mr. Swainson), spread over all the habit- 

 able regions of the globe, are destined to perform an important 

 part in the economy of nature. To them appears entrusted 

 the subjugation of those innumerable crawling insects, which 

 lurk within the buds, the foliage, and the flowers of plants, 

 and, thus protected, escape the swallows, who take them only 

 during flight. The diminutive size of such insects renders 



