^6 



their accustomed haunts. But if this consideration 

 is not sufficient, there is another vi'ew in which the 

 subject may be presented, that cannot fail to render 

 them tlie objects of our care and watchfulness. We 

 must eitlier encourage them, or resign our gardens 

 and orchards to the overwhehning ravages of innume- 

 rable insatiate insects. We must preserve them, and 

 consent to tolerate their minor depredations, or suffer 

 them to be destroyed, and with them all hopes of pre- 

 serving any portion of our fruits. 



It is asserted upon competent authority, that nearly 

 all the food of small birds from the commencement of 

 spring to the middle of June, consists of insects; and 

 that a pair of sparrows during the time they have their 

 young ones to provide for, destroy every week about 

 three thousand three hundred caterpillai-s. By a wise 

 and judicious enactment of the legislature of Mas- 

 sachusetts, the protection of the law is extended to 

 the preservation of certain kinds of birds that are 

 enumerated, and a penalty provided for every infrac- 

 tion of its provisions. Let this association unite in 

 giving efficiency to the laws, by enforcing its opera- 

 tions upon every violater, and thus shall we subserve 

 the pubhc interests, protect our property, and pre- 

 serve those innocent and useful co-laborers, who am- 

 ply repay us in the aid they afford, and in the grati- 

 fication we derive from their presence, and in listening 

 to their inspiring and animating melody. 



The pursuits which it is our object to promote, are 

 not only subservient to the happiness of social and 

 domestic life, in multiplying the resources of inno- 



