162 PLEA FOR THE BIRDS. 



with their proper and natural food. Up to this limit, if 

 they were preserved, our crops would be effectually se- 

 cured from the ravages of insects. The country would 

 probably support double the present number of every 

 species of birds, which are kept down below their proper 

 limits by accident, by the gun of the sportsman, and by 

 the mischievous cruelty of boys. 



Most of the smaller kinds of birds have a disposition 

 to congregate around our villages. We seldom find a 

 robin or a sparrow, during breeding-time, in the deep 

 forest. The same may be said of the insects that serve 

 them for food. There are certain tribes that chiefly fre- 

 quent the wild woods ; these are the prey of woodpeckers 

 and their kindred species. There are others which are 

 abundant chiefly in our orchards and gardens ; these are 

 the prey of bluebirds, sparrows, wrens, and other common 

 and familiar birds. 



Man has the power to diminish the multitudes of in- 

 sects that desolate the forests and destroy his harvests ; 

 but this can be effected only by preserving the birds, and 

 Nature has endowed them with an instinct that leads 

 them to congregate about his habitations, as if she de- 

 signed them to protect him from the scourge of noxious 

 vermin, and to charm his ears by the melody of their 

 songs. Hence every tract which is inhabited by man is 

 furnished with its native singing-bird, and man is endowed 

 with a sensibility that renders the harmony of sounds 

 necessary to his happiness. The warbling of birds is in- 

 timately associated with everything that is beautiful in 

 nature. It is allied with the dawn of morning, the sultry 

 quiet of noon, and the pleasant hush of evening. There 

 is not a cottage in the wilderness whose inmates do not 

 look upon the birds as the chief instruments of Nature to 

 inspire them with contentment in their solitude. With- 

 out their merry voices, the silence of the groves, unbroken 



