136 PLANTS AND ANIMALS. [CHAP. 



up the contest. If they can find mischief going on in a 

 garden or field where the birds have not been meddled 

 with, they begin to triumph, unless they are aware of the 

 true answer. That answer is given by some lover of rural 

 life some observer of birds and insects who says that a 

 single brood of nestlings in the ivy or the hedge has been 

 seen to devour hundreds of grubs or other insects per day, 

 showing that if Nature were let alone, there would be millions 

 so got rid of in a mile (as, indeed, we knew before by the 

 French report) ; and if, after the insects had been left to 

 their natural enemies, there were still too many, what might 

 not the infliction become if they were left without check ? 

 The check ought this year to have been very strong. The 

 swallows came early, the sparrows burst out of the hedges 

 in crowds, the blackbirds and finches have been whistling, 

 and piping, and chirping, as if the world were all their own. 

 But this is only where they are allowed to live; and there 

 are too many parishes and districts where they are not. 

 This is no trifle, and the present season ought to be a 

 lesson for future years." 



It is a melancholy picture, but a true one, of the 

 effects wrought by ignorance, and well illustrates the 

 fact that birds are the natural protectors of plants. 

 Insects are the checks upon plants to prevent their 

 too rapid increase; but if the insects should become 

 too numerous, certain species of plants would dis- 

 appear altogether. To prevent this the small birds 

 are set as a check upon the insects, and that these 

 birds should not increase unduly, the smaller birds of 

 prey keep them in check. Thus every created thing 

 is connected indirectly with every other, and the most 

 perfect harmony of Nature is the result. Man has 

 the power of modifying these arrangements, and uses 



