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iously destroyed by the farmers in the vicinity of Boston : "The 

 Isle of Bourbon, where the Grackle was unknown, was over- 

 run Avith Locusts, which had been accidentally introduced from 

 Madagascar ; the eggs having been imported iu the soil with 

 some plants which were brought from that island. The Gov- 

 ernor General and the Intendant deliberated seriously on the 

 means of extirpating these noxious insects, and for this pur- 

 pose caused several pairs of the Indian Grackle to be intro- 

 duced into the island. This plan promised to succeed ; but 

 unfortunately, some of the colonists seeing the birds eagerly 

 thrust their bills into the earth of the newly sowed fields, 

 imagined that they were in quest of grain, and reported that 

 the birds, instead of proving beneficial, would be highly detri- 

 mental to the country. 



" On the part of the birds it was argued, that they raked in 

 new-ploughed grounds, not for the sake of the grain, but for 

 the insects, and were, therefore, beneficial. They were, how- 

 ever, proscribed by the council ; and in the space of two hours 

 after the sentence was pronounced against them, not a Grackle 

 was found in the island. This prompt execution was followed 

 by a speedy repentance. The Locusts gained the ascendancy, 

 and the people who only viewed the present, regretted the 

 loss of the Grackles. In a few years afterwards, a few pairs 

 were again introduced ; their preservation and breeding were 

 made a State affair ; the laws held out protection to them, and 

 the physicians, on their part, declared their flesh to be un- 

 wholesome. The Grackles accordingly multiplied, and the 

 locusts were destroyed." 



Kalm remarks, in his "Travels in America," that after a 

 great destruction made among the Purple Grackles and Crow 

 Black-birds, for the legal reward of three pence per dozen, the 

 Northern States, in 1749, experienced a complete loss of the 

 grass and grain crops, from the devastation of insects and their 

 larva. The Crows of North America were likewise, some 

 years since, in consequence of premiums ofiered for their de- 

 struction, so nearly exterminated, that the increase of insects 



