PLEA FOR THE BIRDS. Ill 



general economy of Nature, without which the operation 

 of her laws would be disturbed, and the parts in the 

 general harmony would be incomplete. As the annihila- 

 tion of a planet would produce disturbance in the motions 

 of the spheres, and throw the celestial worlds out of their 

 balance, so would the destruction of any species of birds 

 create confusion among terrestrial things. Birds are the 

 chief and almost the only instruments employed by Na- 

 ture for checking the multiplication of insects which other- 

 wise would spread devastation over the whole earth. They 

 are always busy in their great work, emigrating from 

 place to place, as the changes of the seasons cut off their 

 supplies in one country and raise them up in another. 

 Some, like the swallow tribe, seize them on the wing, 

 sailing along the air with the velocity of the winds, and 

 preserving it from any excess of the minute species of 

 atmospheric insects. Others, like the creepers and wood- 

 peckers, penetrate into the wood and bark of trees, and 

 dislodge the larvae before they emerge into the open air. 

 Beside these birds that do their work by day, there are 

 others, like the whippoorwill tribe, that keep their watch 

 by night, and check the multiplication of moths, beetles, 

 and other nocturnal insects. 



Man alone, as I have before remarked, can seriously 

 disturb the operations of Nature. It is he who turns the 

 rivers from their courses, and makes the little gurgling 

 streams tributary to the sluggish canal. He destroys 

 the forests, and exterminates the birds after depriving 

 them of their homes. But the insects, whose extreme 

 minuteness renders them unassailable by his weapons, 

 he cannot destroy, and Nature allows them to multiply 

 and become a scourge to him, as if in just retribution 

 for his cruelty to the feathered races who are his bene- 

 factors. 



