160 



Modern entomology, however, -vrould have explained to tliem 

 the cause of this phenomenon, in the increase of the larva of 

 injurious insects, usually kept in check by the birds which had 

 been destroyed at the shooting match. 



After the abolition of the Game Laws in France, at the close 

 of the last century, the people being used to regard birds as 

 the property of great land owners, instead of the free deni- 

 zens of natui-e, destroyed them without any limits. Every 

 species of game, including even the common singing birds,, 

 was threatened with extermination. It was found necessary, 

 therefore, to protect them by laws that forbade hunting at cer- 

 tain seasons. It is only by such unfortunate experience that 

 men can learn that if they eat the birds, the birds cannot pro- 

 tect them from famine. The most serious evils were produced ; 

 the farmers' crops were destroyed by insects, and the gardens 

 and orchards produced no fruit. Investigations of the course 

 of these evils , by ingenious natiiralists, proved them to be the 

 direct consequence of the extermination of birds. 



Some years ago in Virginia and Carolina, several tracts of 

 forest were attacked by a malady which caused the trees to 

 perish over hundreds of acres. A traveller passing through 

 that region, inquired of a countryman, if he knew the cause of 

 this devastation. He replied that the whole mischief was done 

 by "Woodpeckers ; and though th& inhabitants had killed great 

 numbers of them, there still remained enough to bore into the 

 trees and destroy them. The traveller, not satisfied with this 

 account, made some investigations, and being an entomologist, 

 he soon . convinced them that the cause of the mischief was the 

 larva of a species of the Buprestis, which had multiplied be- 

 yond all bounds. This larva was the favorite food of the 

 Woodpeckers, which had congregated lately in that region, on 

 account of the abundant supply. He proved to them that they 

 were ignorantly engaged in protecting the real destroyers of the 

 forest, by warring against the "Woodpeckers, which, if left un- 

 molested, would nearly eradicate this pest. Birds became ac- 



