A TLEA 1-OK rKOTECTING OUK NATIVE BIRDS. 177 



plenty on our coast between Cape Ann and Hampton, but now it 

 is a rare thing to see a yellow-leg, plover, snipe, or sandpiper. In 

 the meantime the grasshoppers have increased, as the birds have 

 decreased. 



I am told that in the State of Illinois the laws are such that 

 there is a heavy penalty for killing a prairie chicken or quail until 

 a certain day iu the fall, and that no farmer or farmer's sou is 

 allowed to kill any of these birds, even on his own land, till the 

 day arrives, when the sportsman, ever on the alert, speedily 

 secures the birds which have been fattened by the farmer. As a 

 result, grouse, which were formerly plenty in several of the West- 

 ern States, are disappearing like the buffalo on the plains, and it 

 will soon be known only by picture. 



It is a singular fact that the game laws of this country generally 

 favor the sportsman, and more singular and painful still, that 

 some of our agricultural and horticultural periodicals should cater 

 to the sporting gentry, and even recommend planting certain trees 

 and shrubs for parks and game preserves. I have not had time to 

 inform m3'self fully on the present game laws of Europe, but my 

 impressions are that, years ago, the German government, thinking 

 the birds destroyed their fruit and grain, recommended the promis- 

 cuous killing of all birds ; but in a few years the insects so 

 increased, as to threaten the destruction of all their crops, and 

 strenuous laws protecting birds were at once made, which con- 

 tinue iu force at the present time. If I mistake not, Spain has 

 learned that the destruction of her forests has so diminished the 

 number of birds, that great losses to crops have resulted. I will 

 not pretend to say that if the birds had all been permitted to live 

 there would have been no damage done by insects ; but it must be 

 admitted, that at the settlement of this country, when the primeval 

 forests protected thousands of birds which now have no such 

 protection, nature preserved the balance of power, and birds and 

 insects must have lived together for generations without either 

 gaining materially on the other. Since that time, no new species 

 of insects have been created, though some have been imported ; 

 but through the the cutting off of our forests, the converting of 

 immense tracts of wild land into corn and grain fields, and the 

 multiplication of vegetable and fruit farms, the balance of power 

 has been turned in favor of the insects, till today the formidable 

 host is the terror of all agriculturists throughout the land. 

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