UTILITY OF BIRDS. 57 



theirs was cut down and destroyed, almost as soon as it sprang 

 up, by these vermin. " I have no concern about it," he 

 replied ; " my robins see to that. I preserve them from their 

 enemies — the boys and the cats — and they preserve my garden 

 from insects and worms. In one corner of my garden, near 

 my dwelling, is a tree in which a couple of these friends of man 

 have reared their families for three successive years. There 

 has ever been a harmony between my birds and me." This 

 was the whole explanation of the healthfulness of the fruits 

 and vegetables in his garden : he preserved all the birds in his 

 garden, and they devoured the insects that infested it. Grass- 

 hoppers, he said, in the early stage of their existence, and for 

 some weeks after their appearance, are not larger than flies ; 

 and ten or twelve birds would clear a whole field of them, 

 before they could be large enough to do any injury ; and he 

 besought all parents, as they valued their property and the 

 blessing of Heaven, to prevent their boys from shooting robins 

 and other birds. 



It is well known that the small owls are useful as destroyers 

 of the larger moths and nocturnal insects ; they are also excel- 

 lent mousers. The Hon. Richard Peters, in " The Memoirs of 

 the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture," remarks 

 of a small species of owl : " The numbers of mice, moles and 

 other vermin destroyed by the short-eared owl are truly 

 surprising. All the owl tribe are mousers. A pine tree, 

 spreading and thick-set, near my house, affords a shelter and 

 roost to about a dozen of these owls through the winter." He 

 therefore enjoyed the opportunity of witnessing their opera- 

 tions ; and a few of them, for they are generally gregarious, 

 will soon, in liis opinion, clear the barn and out-houses of a 

 farm, as well as the fields, from vermin, in the vicinity of their 

 resort. Farmers, he said, should encourage the small owls to 

 reside near their buildings, and invite their visits in every way, 

 for it is only the larger species that will attack poultry, or 

 commit damages of any sort. 



The different habits of foraging that distinguish the several 

 tribes and species of the feathered race, deserve attention, as 

 indications of a corresponding difference in the character of 

 their food. Those, for example, that seek their food chiefly 

 from the surface of the ground, would forage in a different 



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