SYLVIA. 



749 



ture of a thousand caterpillars, and the caterpillars 

 which the birds pick from the leaves, and other parts 

 of the trees, have always done some mischief before 

 the birds can find them, generally before the sylvan 

 warblers of the summer betake themselves to the 

 groves, or even before they arrive in the country. 



But the redbreast does not confine itself to the 

 insects which it captures on the wing, or by hovering 

 about the leaves till its opportunity arrives ; it de- 

 scends to the ground, where it captures multitudes of 

 worms and ground larva;, and also the mature of 

 these, Gaffer Long-legs for instance, and the other 

 tipulcc, which are so destructive to the rootlets of 

 herbaceous plants, and also the small jumping beetles 

 .which destroy the seed leaves of turnips and other 

 dicotyledonous plants. 



Thus, when the robin, having sung the vespers 

 of the one year, and the matin song of the other, 

 amusing us with the familiarity of its manners during 

 the pause of nature between, leaves us for a season, 

 and the performance of its own seasonal purposes, 

 it does not quit our service ; but works as diligently 

 for the conservation of the vegetation of the grain, as 

 it does for that of the garden and the home shrub- 

 beries during the winter. Indeed the whole of the 

 sylviada; are 'great conservators of vegetation, pro- 

 tecting it from fees which no human skill or labour 

 can reach, and exerting themselves with an assiduity 

 which not the most zealous and persevering of the 

 human race could by possibility undergo. Try to 

 pick the aphides, one by one, from a single rose-tree, 

 or the caterpillars from a single cabbage or cauli- 

 flower, which has been planted in the wrong soil or 

 situation, and he will have some idea of the labour 

 which is performed by the fine-billed birds. Then 

 it appears as if nature had endowed them with their 

 sweetness of song, in order that men might be melted 

 by their melody, and so spare them that they may do 

 good. This is the fact in many more cases than we 

 are aware of ; and there are few facts in the whole 

 range of nature that are more delightfully instructire. 

 Those in the animal kingdom are, of course, the 

 most striking, because animals themselves draw the 

 general attention more than the productions of the 

 other kingdoms of nature. Now it will not fail to 

 strike any one who devotes but a moment's attention 

 to the subject, that those animals which do not in 

 any obvious way work for the good of man, always 

 retire from places as they become peopled and culti- 

 vated ; while those that are eminently useful not only 

 stay, but increase in numbers, and follow cultivation 

 into places in which they were not to be found so 

 long as those places were neglected. Thus, in Bri- 

 tain, while eagles and ravens, and also the wild 

 mountain game, and the long-legged fishing or sca- 

 venger birds by the waters, are all very much con- 

 fined in locality and diminished in numbers to what 

 they once were ; on the other hand, the field and 

 woodland game birds, the partridges in the fields, 

 and the pheasants in the copses (though the latter 

 are imported birds), have multiplied greatly ; and 

 the warblers have extended into districts in which 

 they were formerly unknown. Now, in all instances 

 in which such changes take place in the children of 

 nature adapting themselves to the progress of art, 

 we may rest assured that the animals which diminish 

 in numbers or disappear, are not wanted in the state 

 of culture, and would be injurious if they were to 

 remain in numbers. Those again which remain 



where cultivation extends and improves, always have 

 some useful office to perform, whether we understand 

 the nature of that office or not. Even they may be 

 in excess, however, beyond what is required for 

 good, and then the surplus must do mischief; but 

 this is a point upon which we cannot, in the nature 

 of things, obtain perfect information ; and therefore 

 we must not come to any positive conclusion respect- 

 ing it. Of the general good done by the Sylmadae, 

 there can, however, be no doubt, and there can be 

 as little as to the particular advantages of the sum- 

 mer labours of the redbreast. 



But its winter labours are scarcely less valuable. 

 It comes to the garden?, orchards, and vineyards early 

 in the season ; and although it plunders the grapes to 

 a considerable extent there is hardly any thing in com- 

 mon gardens and orchards to which it can do much 

 harm. Its bill is not formed for cutting and dividing 

 large substances ; and therefore the leaves of the 

 mountain ash and other analogous trees, none of 

 which are of much value to man, are the chief sub- 

 jects of its vegetable plunder. Vegetables, indeed, 

 are a secondary object with it at all times, and it never 

 has recourse to them, if it can find insects or worms, 

 even at the expense of far more labour than the vege- 

 tables would cost. This is the great foundation of its 

 value in the garden and near the house in the autumn, 

 the winter, and the early spring. It is one of the 

 most industrious of birds, the first to begin its work in 

 the morning, and the last to give it up in the evening. 



Its early arrival in the autumn is of particular value. 

 It comes long before the air is freed of winged insects 

 for the season ; and it watches them with assiduity, 

 and catches them with certainty, when they resort to 

 those places where they deposit their eggs. It is un- 

 derstood that the young birds are the first to appear 

 near houses in the autumn, and that they break into 

 song, in consequence of the food which they then eat, 

 and the temperature of the season jointly bringing 

 upon them a sort of forced act of that energy which is 

 to come into full vigour and exercise in the spring. 

 Be that as it may, their song in the autumn is exceed- 

 ingly pleasant ; because amid the decline of the year 

 it sings of hope and prophesies that the spring will 

 again return. 



The natural cause which brings it so constantly and 

 so closely to the dwellings of mankind, is the number 

 of perfect insects which are kept alive by the artificial 

 heat of such places. These are chiefly, if not wholly, 

 females ; for the males of insects are something like 

 the anthers of flowers, they perish as soon as the func- 

 tion for which they are appointed is performed. But 

 the females have a longer duration: they have the 

 eggs to deposit ; and, if no casualty overtakes them, 

 they do not perish until that is performed. In coun- 

 tries where the seasons are very marked, the cold 

 often comes upon them before the eggs are laid ; and 

 it appears that they are under some special protection 

 of nature while charged with this important trust. 

 When the cold overtakes them they become dormant, 

 until they are aroused to activity by the return of 

 warmth. Some of them, as for instance the bees and 

 wasps which form annual colonies, remain in this dor- 

 mant state all the winter ; but there are many others 

 which habitually deposit their eggs and perish, of 

 which a considerable number become dormant in a 

 temporary way, but are ready for being called into 

 activity by any natural or even artificial increase of 

 temperature. The redbreasts are not only on the 



