70 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



insects that infest cattle. Naturalize these birds in Europe, 

 and no scientific discovery ever made would prove so beneficial 

 to man. But the birds of our own groves would perhaps be suffi- 

 cient of themselves to clear our plains of these inconveniences, 

 were the bird-catchers forbidden to entrap them. 



" A fancy, some years ago, prevailed in Prussia, of proscribing 

 the race of sparrows, as inimical to agriculture. Every peasant 

 was subjected to an annual capitation of twelve heads of this 

 species of bird, which were employed in the manufacture of 

 saltpetre ; for in that country nothing is wasted. At the end, 

 however, of the second year, it was discovered that the crops 

 were devoured by insects, and it was speedily found advisable 

 to invite the sparrows from the neighboring counties to re-people 

 the kingdom with them, and remedy the evil. These birds, it 

 is true, when insects fail them, eat some grains of wheat. 

 But insects, be it remembered, consume it by bushels, and even 

 by granaries. Meanwhile, if the whole race of insects could 

 be destroyed, it would not be expedient to attempt it, since 

 there would be destroyed along with them most of the feathered 

 tribes of our plains, which, during the season of breeding, 

 have no other food for their young." 



The inhabitants of a new country, like our own, are not so 

 well informed of the evils that follow the destruction of birds, 

 as those of old countries who have learned by tradition the 

 indispensable character of their services. Vincent KoUar says, 

 a judicious method of setting a limit to the excessive increase 

 of the cockchafer, is to spare the birds that feed upon the larva 

 of this insect. Among these, he thinks the crow undoubtedly 

 claims the first place. " These birds," he says, " follow the 

 plough, for the express purpose of consuming worms, the larva 

 of insects, and particularly that of the cockchafer, when thrown 

 out on the surface by the plough. The instinct of the crow to 

 go in quest of this grub, may also be observed in gardens and 

 other places where vegetables are planted. He walks about 

 between the plants, and when he sees one that has begun to 

 wither, digs with his sharp bill deep into the ground, near the 

 plant, and knows so well how to seize his prey, that he draws 

 it forth and swallows it almost at the same moment. The 

 crows do the same in tlie meadows, which we see sometimes 

 completely covered with them." 



