286 OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



number of species, that of individuals must be 

 countless as the grains of sand or the cbops of 

 ocean. 



Were it not for the aid of birds in effecting the 

 destruction of these beautiful but often destructive 

 creatm-es, the very air would become insupportable 

 from their numbers, and the earth would be made 

 barren by their devastations. Not only would 

 they give pain to man and the lower animals by 

 their stings, or annoy our ears by a perpetual 

 hum, but our very food would be rendered dis- 

 gusting by their eggs. In the hotter climates, 

 where they are permitted to increase in larger pro- 

 portion than the birds which feed on them, they 

 become an annoyance which is almost insupport- 

 able ; and were it not in those lands that birds are 

 found to lessen their numbers, the locusts and 

 others of the tribe would soon leave the earth 

 without a remnant of gi*een ; and the mosquitos 

 and other insects would in time even exterminate 

 man from the face of the eartli. 



The chaffinch is one of tlie handsomest of our 

 song birds, and one of the most common birds 

 too. We are all ready to admit that its song is 

 sweet and varied, and even its call-note of " twink. 



