



H 



THE " miserly agriculturist," is the accurate and 

 forcible expression of Virgil. Miserly, and blind, in 

 truth, for he proscribes the birds which destroy in- 

 sects and protect his crops. 



Not a grain will he spare to the bird which, during 

 } the winter rains, hunted up the future insect, sought 

 out the nests of the larvae, examined them, turned over 

 every leaf, and daily destroyed myriads of future cater- 

 pillars; but sacks of corn to the adult insects, and whole 

 fields to the grasshoppers which the bird would have 

 combated ! 



With his eyes fixed on the furrow, on the present 

 moment, without sight or foresight; deaf to the grand 

 harmony which no one ever interrupts with impunity, 

 lie has everywhere solicited or approved the laws which suppressed the 

 much-needed assistant of his labour, the insect-destroying bird. And 



